David Manser

Board Member, David Manser has spent more than 30 years working in high volume, fast paced, customer facing retail with many of those spent in the home furnishing sector. Starting after University, intending to stay for a few months, David worked his way from the shop floor to the top of the organisation learning about the strong connection between commerciality, customer focus and employee engagement as well as all the other elements of running a large organisation.

When given the opportunity to move abroad in the early 2000s, David jumped at it and went first to Trondheim in Norway, before moving south to Helsinki (a fact he is very proud of – who else moves south the Helsinki?), learning Norwegian and Finnish along the way. After 7 years in the Nordics, David moved to Switzerland and stayed for 9 years before moving back to the UK. Living and working abroad has taught David that the needs of the many people are surprisingly similar regardless of country, language or creed. It has also taught him that for an organisation to be successful it needs a relentless focus on the customer that goes across the whole organisation and a strong culture for the employees.

Away from work, David has a wife and two children, he enjoys cooking, opera, travel and learning Japanese. He is also very proud to be a Samaritans listening volunteer.

Appointed: 2025