Dr David Birch holds an MA (1st class) in Chemistry from Trinity College, Oxford, and stayed on to complete a DPhil in pharmaceutical chemistry at St John’s College, Oxford, where he was North Senior Scholar and tutor in organic chemistry. During his studies David spent four long, happy summers in the organic chemistry research labs at ICI Pharmaceuticals (became Astra Zeneca) at Alderley Park in Cheshire.

David switched career track after completing his DPhil and spent 25 years at the global management consulting firm, McKinsey and Company, “retiring” as a Senior Partner in 2017. David’s focus at McKinsey was on operational performance improvement and large scale transformational change: he served many U.K. and international clients on these matters, working across all sectors of the economy, public and private. Internally he was global co-leader for McKinsey’s Operations Practice, and served on McKinsey’s global learning board, where he was responsible for all training and development across the Firm on functional topics (strategy, operations, technology etc).

David also spent 7 years (1988-95) working for Mars Confectionery in the U.K., where he played several management roles in manufacturing operations and research and development.

David’s main interests now are in the areas of management training, executive development, coaching and mentoring. He continues to work as a senior advisor in these areas for McKinsey and acts as a lead faculty on several Partner learning programmes. He also acts as a coach and mentor to a number of professional services leaders.

David has been married to Louise for over 30 years: they have three children, now embarked on their own paths in medicine, corporate law and engineering respectively.  David follows lots of interests in his spare time, but does few of them well. A big mad dog keeps him fit.

David joined the Board of Governors in February 2018 and is also the Chair of the People, Finance and Resources Committee.