David Grayson

David started his working life in marketing management with Procter and Gamble, prior to becoming a social entrepreneur - starting and / or running a number of public-private-community partnerships. He was co-founder / director of Project North East; he chairs Housing 21 - one of the leading providers of sheltered and extra care housing and care for older people and is a former joint Managing-Director of Business in the Community and remains a part-time director where he particularly focuses on small businesses as founder chairman of the UK Small Business Consortium.
Much of his recent work has focussed on how to shift Corporate Responsibility from being a bolt-on to business operations to being built-in to business purpose and strategy. He is especially interested in how a genuine commitment to sustainability and responsibility can become a source of creativity and innovation, leading to new business opportunities.
He is a visiting Senior Fellow at the CSR Initiative of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. In April 2007, David became Chair of Corporate Responsibility, and founding director of the Doughty Centre for Responsible Business at Cranfield School of Management.
David was the first, joint Managing-Director of the Prince's Youth Business Trust; and the director of The Prince of Wales Award for Innovation. He was the Chairman of the National Disability Council, established by Parliament to end discrimination against disabled Britons, and is now a Patron of the disability charity Scope.
He has Masters degrees from the universities of Cambridge and Brussels, and an honorary doctorate from London South Bank University. He has been a Visiting Fellow at several UK and American business schools.
His books include: "Corporate Social Opportunity: Seven Steps to make Corporate Social Responsibility work for your business" co-authored with Adrian Hodges.