Chief Executive's biography
David is the Chief Executive of the IBMS, a position he has held since June 2021.
He is also the Scientific Lead for Pathology – for NHS England in the London, a position he has held since September 2021. In March this year, David became Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Science Council.
In October 2020 David was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists in recognition of his contribution to Pathology during a time of huge change and more recently during a time great pressure and transformation as a response to the recent pandemic.
David’s has been recognised as one of the 100 best, brightest and most powerful advocates for pathology in the global community by the Pathologist magazine, making their Power List six times since 2018.
Up until June 2021 David was leading the NHS England and NHS Improvement Pathology consolidation programme, seeking to deliver efficient, high quality and innovative pathology services across England. During this time David secured record levels of investment in workforce and Digital/IT solutions and the networking agenda progressed more than it had done in the previous 2 decades.
During this time David also led on NHS England's COVID-19 testing and the response to the pandemic as a subject matter expert advising on policy, strategy and deployment of technology, providing significant national leadership throughout. He was also tasked with ensuring all capacity requirements were met, advising ministers by providing policy and strategic direction, and helping the government to achieve their goal of delivering 100,000 COVID-19 tests per day in April 2020.
David has a diverse experience; providing and leading pathology services to primary, secondary and tertiary care across all pathology disciplines; leading on development national strategy and policy; and system wide, complex national change programmes.
In recognition of his COVID-19 response work and for transforming England’s pathology services, the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) awarded him an Honorary Fellowship in 2020 and Anglia Ruskin University presented him with the Alumni Frontline Service Award in 2021.
Early career
After completing IBMS Accredited BSc and MSc Biomedical Science courses at Anglia Ruskin, David trained at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge where he qualified as a Biomedical Scientist in December 2000.
He then undertook a number of laboratory management roles as well as lecturing in Biomedical Science. He became the first person to hold the post of Lead Healthcare Scientist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, which saw him in charge of their entire healthcare science workforce. Later, David became Director of Operations at Viapath, one of the UK’s largest networked pathology services, covering King's College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals.
IBMS background
Starting his work for the IBMS in 2008, David became a Specialist Portfolio Assessor for Clinical Chemistry. In 2009 he became a Special Advisory Panel Member for Clinical Chemistry, later becoming Deputy Examiner for the specialism from 2011 to 2015.
David served as an IBMS Council Member for the London Region in 2015, where he served for six years following two elections. In 2020, he was elected as the Chair of the Membership and Marketing Committee.
David has also represented the IBMS on The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) diagnostic advisory panels and various national forums, including an observer on the RCPath Council and in the Parliamentary and Science committee.