David is the Executive Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School and an Assistant Professor (Adjunct) of Business Ethics at the Divinity School and the Yale School of Management. His current course is called “Business Ethics: Succeeding without Selling Your Soul.” He has particular interest in questions pertaining to ethics and spirituality in the workplace and moral leadership. David’s forthcoming book, The Faith at Work Movement, examines the growth, dynamics, and possible future of the faith in the workplace movement.
He received his Ph.D. and M.Div. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). While doing his doctoral work, David co-founded The Avodah Institute in 1999 and serves as its president. Avodah’s mission is to help leaders integrate the claims of their faith with the demands of their work.
David brings an unusual “bilingual” perspective to the academic world, having also spent 16 years in senior positions in international business and finance. Prior to his entry into academia, David lived and worked in London, England for eight years, where he was an equity partner in a private bank that specialized in international investment management, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions. Before that he was a senior executive and director of the securities services and global custody division of Midland Bank plc (now part of the HSBC Group). He first moved to London as the managing director of the European operations of State Street Bank and Trust, a leading US securities services bank. He started his management career in the U.S., after graduating from Bucknell University in 1979, working for IBM for eight years in a variety of sales and marketing management positions in New Jersey and New England. David also speaks German, having lived, studied, and worked in Germany.
David serves as an advisor to several corporate CEOs and senior executives on questions pertaining to ethics, values, and integrating faith and work. He is also a frequent speaker at gatherings of business leaders, industry associations, academic conferences, and large church programs. As a recognized expert in the field of ethics, values, and faith at work, he is often cited in the media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Fortune magazine, Across the Board, public radio, and NBC.
David finds inspiration in the lives and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Stott. Married to Karen, a former lawyer and law school professor, he enjoys being with his nieces, and playing tennis, bridge, and tandem bicycling.