David Sally Keynote Speaker

Author of One Step Ahead: Mastering the Art and Science of Negotiation
Expert in the art of Negotiation.
Co-author of The Numbers Game

David Sally's Biography

David Sally is an innovative strategist and problem-solver, as well as an economist with a deep knowledge of and respect for the other social sciences and literature.

After graduating from Harvard College with a degree in Government, David was a consultant at Bain and Company in Boston and a manager of strategic planning at Avon Products in New York. In 1995, he received his PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Part of the initial wave of behavioral economists, David’s research in behavioral game theory was widely published and informed his award-winning teaching of negotiations and leadership at Cornell’s Johnson School and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

In 2011 he co-founded Anderson Sally LLC, one of the world’s first soccer analytics consulting companies, and co-wrote The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong which was published in the UK and the US in 2013 and has been translated into a dozen other languages. He has helped numerous football clients make the right investment, see beyond tradition and the commonplace, and find sustainable competitive advantage, more goals, more clean sheets, and more victories.

Behavioural economics and decision-making

Leadership, negotiation and strategic thinking

Data analytics and innovation in sport

Competitive advantage and performance in football

Challenging conventional thinking through analytics

He is a behavioural economist and strategist who combines economics, psychology and data-driven thinking to challenge conventional approaches to performance and decision-making.
He brings exceptional credibility through academic research, leadership teaching and pioneering work in behavioural game theory and sports analytics.
He is an engaging and thought-provoking speaker whose insights bridge business strategy, behavioural science and elite sporting performance.
He combines experience from top institutions including Harvard, Bain, Chicago Booth, Cornell and Dartmouth with real-world consulting across football and business.
His insights equip organisations to think differently about leadership, negotiation, competitive advantage and how data can drive smarter decisions and sustained success.