David Pearson
Principal Consultant
Pinsent Masons
David Pearson, Principal Consultant, is an award-winning leadership and inclusion expert, keynote speaker and presenter, with global experience advising clients on every aspect of diversity & inclusion. His professional background is as an organisational change practitioner, strategy consultant, economist, policy advisor and corporate finance specialist. His senior in-house and consulting roles include Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Corporate Responsibility for Gowling WLG, D&I subject matter expert for KPMG’s People Consulting practice, Director Global Inclusion & Diversity at KPMG and Culture & Engagement Lead, KPMG UK. He has held a number of external appointments, including on Hyatt hotels Global D&I Advisory Panel, the Global Life Sciences Advisory Board and the Business Disability Forum Global Taskforce. He is the creator of the UK’s only in-house inclusive leadership certification. In 2017 he was named as a NatWest Top 10 Diversity Champion and in 2019 was named as Channel 4 Diversity Hero of the Year. In 2021 his team won the Excellence in Equality & Inclusion Award at the People in Law Awards and was shortlisted for D&I Initiative of the Year at the British Legal Awards. He is a past regional and national winner of Boston Consulting Group’s Business Strategy Competition.
David’s select professional experience includes assisting clients to develop D&I strategies and policies; conducting D&I diagnostics applying D&I maturity models; undertaking diversity benchmarking; setting diversity targets; delivering inclusive leadership programmes and workshops to Board members, executive teams and employees; and advising clients on leading practice for creating effective diversity networks. He led a major culture transformation programme for KPMG UK, including designing values and behaviours workshops and training 100 Ethics Champions to deliver the sessions to 18,000 employees.
He has advised organisations in the private, public and third sectors, including Macquarie Bank, Aegon, De Beers, Siemens, Unilever, Virgin Money, Carbon Trust, Sainsbury’s, Marsh, Lloyds of London, Colt Technology, JP Morgan, Financial Ombudsman Service, Government Equalities Office, Government Legal Department, International Securities Lending Association, Linnaeus, Mainstream Renewable Power, Mewburn Ellis, Ruffer, IGF, Team England, London Business School, Second Home, Peakon and Stonewall.
David’s select professional experience includes assisting clients to develop D&I strategies and policies; conducting D&I diagnostics applying D&I maturity models; undertaking diversity benchmarking; setting diversity targets; delivering inclusive leadership programmes and workshops to Board members, executive teams and employees; and advising clients on leading practice for creating effective diversity networks. He led a major culture transformation programme for KPMG UK, including designing values and behaviours workshops and training 100 Ethics Champions to deliver the sessions to 18,000 employees.
He has advised organisations in the private, public and third sectors, including Macquarie Bank, Aegon, De Beers, Siemens, Unilever, Virgin Money, Carbon Trust, Sainsbury’s, Marsh, Lloyds of London, Colt Technology, JP Morgan, Financial Ombudsman Service, Government Equalities Office, Government Legal Department, International Securities Lending Association, Linnaeus, Mainstream Renewable Power, Mewburn Ellis, Ruffer, IGF, Team England, London Business School, Second Home, Peakon and Stonewall.