David Ballard

David is a Director of Alexander Ballard Ltd and leads many of our projects. David's strong background in business strategy, his prolonged experience of working in the sustainability field in the commercial and governmental sectors and his deep understanding of change at the organisational, personal and social level gives him a unique command of the issues inherent in developing commercially sharp and creative responses to climate change and other related issues.

David began his career with the Post Office and then spent five years in finance and commercial roles with Esso Europe Inc. He then moved to THORN EMI where he held a series of senior roles in finance, marketing, strategy and organisational development. His responsibilities included running a highly profitable business line (total annual income over 400m UK pounds, growing income and ROCE and exceeding all targets) and project managing the merger of four operating companies (completed to time and budget with all objectives met).

David's interest in the environment began in his local community - he gave his first public talk on climate change in 1989. Recognising the strategic importance of the issues, he made a significant career shift to become THORN UK's first Environment Manager, making major improvements to the company's performance and saving a considerable amount of money in the process. He introduced environmental management systems and measurement processes and designed THORN EMI's groundbreaking report which was awarded the prize as the best new Environmental Report in the UK and won prizes as the best report in the UK in the following two years.

Since then he has developed an unusually high level of understanding of climate change and related issues and of how they impact organisations. He held a part-time staff position at Bath University where he focused on the business implications of climate change. He also worked at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, jointly editing a climate change web magazine, an experience which gave him an unusual overview of the science, of policy responses and of leading practice. He has worked as a consultant on strategic sustainability issues with a wide range of businesses and with national and local government. He is a member of the Balaton Group, a global network of senior sustainability thinkers and practitioners, and is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Climate Outreach Information Network (COIN).

Recognising the vital importance of organisational and human change, and the need to develop a high level of skills that he could apply to change for sustainable development, David became a Director of one of the UK's most highly respected organisational development consultancies for four years. During this time he was involved in many strategic change programmes in both commercial and public sectors. In particular he worked for several years on a major strategic change project with a UK investment bank.

His period of working with mid career managers at Bath University and his experience in industry have given him an unusual level of experience of the practical issues involved in organisational and human change in response to sustainability issues such as climate change.

David has an MA from Cambridge University and an MBA from London Business School. For a while he was a Senior Research Fellow in Bath University's School of Management, focusing on how to accelerate industry transformation to low carbon technology.

Contact David on david.ballard@alexanderballard.co.uk, tel +44 (0)7840 544226


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