Testimonials

I've known David for nearly three decades and our careers have followed similar paths save that mine was in 'the law' and David's was in 'accountancy and consulting'. During that time we have both experienced the development of local, national, regional and global businesses. I've never had a conversation with David when I haven't positively benefited from our discussions. 

That benefit arises from experiences in leadership at PwC and IBM, as well as his work with world-leading clients. He sees opportunities and issues early, can articulate them very clearly and translates the actions into plans that the whole of an organisation can understand and execute using his highly developed communication skills and emotional intelligence.

From my experience, David has the know-how and skill you need of someone you would want to mentor business leaders, or give strategic guidance to a CEO (and board) in relation to any aspect of their business whether it be around strategy, alignment, leadership, change management or governance.

For me it has been a privilege to have worked with him and to count him as a close business confidant and friend. I would recommend David to any CEO or Managing Partner, who has, or thinks he or she should create an ambitious agenda – and wants to make sure it gets delivered.

Sir Nigel Knowles
Managing Partner, DLA Piper International

BAE Systems Detica provides security and intelligence information services globally.

David and I have worked together for a number of years following my appointment as Managing Director of that business and he has been a member of our Advisory Board since 2009. 

David's specific role has been to provide external input, challenge and support directly to myself and my team in a number or areas, most notably our strategy and programmes of change, our operating model and team construct to execute that model as well as activities in the business development arena.

What I particularly value about my relationship with David is his clarity of thought, his ability to cut through complex challenges and break them into tractable problems with action plans to address but mostly his ability to draw on a vast set of experiences that are relevant to my business.

For leaders such as myself who wish to take advantage of his quite unique expertise, I have found the experience of working with David very insightful, constructively challenging and enjoyable. He is a valuable asset within my business and for my senior team.

Martin Sutherland
Managing Director, BAE Systems Detica

I first met with David when commencing my role as Managing Partner of a mid-size law firm in challenging circumstances.

David has provided valuable assistance in two respects. Firstly, using his experience of managing professional service firms, he helped me identify how to deal with the most important issues for my firm and how to use my leadership role to address them. This enabled me to focus and direct my own time and actions on what matters most and provide similar guidance and support to my immediate team. This assistance has been essentially focused on the practical.

In addition, in a more visionary and personal way, we have spent time reviewing my aspirations for the business and what it would take to realise them. Our discussions have allowed me to take a number of different strands of thinking and package and focus my thoughts into coherent and compelling propositions. David's ability to drive simplicity from complexity and his ways of thinking about how to conceive and communicate my view of the firm's future have been of significant benefit to me in my leadership role. 

Matthew Lohn
Managing Partner, Field Fisher Waterhouse

As Managing Partner, PWC Consulting EMEA and IBM Global Business Services

While David’s business results in EMEA were impressive, perhaps more impressive was his quick  recognition that the cultures of both organisations that were to be integrated had to be transformed. He led that transformation with a sensitive but firm hand. It is that transformation that allowed the business to sustain its performance over many quarters.

The challenge for David was to engage a number of peers and to demonstrate that he understood the inter-relationship of the consulting business and other parts of IBM such as our hardware and software businesses. It was this understanding and the collaborative style he used in that engagement that caused these peers to provide the critical support needed to nurture the cultural change David drove across of major countries in EMEA. He earned the respect of all.

Mark Elliott
former Chairman of IBM EMEA and now a Non Executive Director of Reed Elsevier plc, G4S plc and Chairman of Quinetiq plc.

It was no surprise to me to see how magnificently David handled the twin tasks of continuing to lead PwCC in EMEA through a tough trading period and concurrently playing such a major role in shepherding the business into a new home in IBM. David possesses an extraordinary combination of people orientation and task-focus which enabled him to communicate a compelling vision of PwCC as part of IBM and to direct the smooth integration of the combined businesses. David’s style was based on ‘leadership from the front’ using both logic and emotion in appropriate measure. His ability to generate trust in his Partners, PwC firm-wide and prospective buyers was based on his belief and confidence in his vision and strategies but also his ability to execute and deliver results.

Vic Luck
David’s predecessor as Managing Partner of PwC Consulting in EMEA.

As Global Leader, Strategy and Market Development, IBM Global Business Services

David’s legacy as a leader – with clients, our people and important business initiatives – is unquestioned, and he never wavered on the strategic importance of what we started five years ago. Today, the strategy that bears his imprint has carried us to a new level of performance and positioned us to take the next step to market leadership.

And while he was architecting the strategy and leading the re-commitment to industry leadership, David maintained his commitment to clients like Nestle, Shell, Norwich Union, Unilever and DVLA where we delivered some of our most successful and innovative transformation programmes – many on a global scale.

Ginni Rometty was leading the business worldwide throughout this period. She is now Chairman, President and CEO of IBM Corporation worldwide.

I was swayed in great part by the way you (David Dockray) thought about things and the values you personally held. And then we were into the reality of executing what we had dreamed about….. There you were in the thick of it, doing exactly what you said you would do. There’s nothing more pleasing than seeing the actions equal the words.

Doug Elix
the IBM Executive Vice President responsible for the acquisition of PWCC

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