David Brambell Keynote Speaker

David Brambell joined the Royal Engineers after studying civil engineering at university.  A career in the Army, commercial sector and most recently as an independent consultant have seen him lead soldiers in combat; build, operate and dismantle Camp Bastion; deliver hospitals in Sierra Leone during the fight against Ebola; transform the front-line operation for a major national brand, and (after extracting himself from Kyiv) coordinate the evacuation of his client’s people from Ukraine during the Russian invasion.

David’s 28 years’ Army service took him to over 20 countries and was book-ended by the First Gulf War and the withdrawal from Camp Bastion in Helmand Province. David finished his service in 2016 and counts himself supremely privileged to have led soldiers at every rank to Full Colonel, both in training and on operations, from Northern Ireland to the Middle East.

On leaving the Army, David brought the experience of leadership and change to a major national roadside assistance operation.  Here, he led 3,000 front-line staff through a root and branch organisational and cultural transformation.  By concentrating on the people – whether that’s at the foundations of trust, the mechanics of structure or the hard metrics of performance – David was able to achieve measurable improvements for customers, investors, and colleagues.​

The latest chapter of his career, as an independent consultant, found David in Kyiv waking up on 24 February 2022 (his wedding anniversary) to the sounds of Russian rockets hitting Hostomel airfield.  David and a small team of colleagues made an intense 40-hour journey from Kyiv to Bucharest (the last 10 miles to the border on foot) from where he planned and coordinated the evacuation of his client’s people from Ukraine and the support of those who were unable or unwilling to leave.

David is an exceptional orator with a commanding presence who consistently engages his audience.  Not only does he speak with enthusiasm, authority and humour, he sees connections and possibilities which open new perspectives to challenges and opportunities.  David’s ability to draw on examples from his own career and elsewhere and make them relevant to his audiences is inspiring and engaging.