Overview
David Cookson is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Singapore office and a member of the Financial Services Practice and co-lead of the global banking business. He is also a member of the CEO & Board of Directors Practice.
Experience
David specializes in executive search, succession planning, leadership development, and consulting assignments for financial services clients around the world. He has experience at the C-suite and board level, with a particular focus on corporate and retail banking, financial exchanges, insurance, wealth and asset management, and private equity.
David advises clients on aligning talent with their overall strategy and existing leadership. He works with various organizations from publicly-traded firms to smaller private firms and family-owned businesses. Having lived and worked across continents, He has conducted hundreds of leadership engagements across Beijing, Hong Kong, London, New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, among others.
David also advises boards on governance issues, post-merger integration, and CEO succession projects. He coaches and mentors executives on leadership issues including social mobility and ensuring that succession processes deliver diverse, equitable, and inclusive results.
Before joining Heidrick & Struggles, David was a partner in London and Singapore with another leading search firm. In that role, he established a portfolio of clients across financially regulated industries. He built a successful corporate officers practice and has extensive experience in functional hiring, helping to appoint group CFOs, CROs, GCs, and chief auditors for some of the world’s largest and most complex financial institutions.
David began his career with PwC in London where he advised both insurance and asset management clients. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales (ICAEW).
Education
University of Reading, BA in History