Born in Essex and bred in Sussex, David made the county of Cumbria his home back in 2010 and has been living in Kirkby Stephen since 2013 with fiancée Caroline and children Ewan (11) and Amelia (10).
“Amanda lives in Appleby and has a strong network of contacts there. I hope my connections in the south of our patch can see me recruit members and wider market business from in and around the Kirkby Stephen area so that we continue to have a balanced book,” said 51-year-old David whose career has primarily been insurance led.
Back in 2007, keen to give something back to the community, David decided to test himself by becoming an on-call firefighter for Surrey Fire and Rescue while working in insurance in Reading, juggling the two roles. It was a job he loved and one which gave him many valuable transferable skills.
However, his desire to work in the countryside became too tempting to resist, so he headed north to Cumbria and learnt dry stone walling and fencing.
Settled in the area, David then worked for the Roof Box Company in Sedbergh before moving on to be the key account manager for Petzl at Lyon Equipment in Tebay.
Lyon are a leading distributor of climbing, mountaineering, water sport, caving, cycling and general outdoor equipment to retailers throughout the UK and Ireland. They are also specialist suppliers of safety equipment for access and all kinds of work (and rescue) at height.
Taking his specialist knowledge of working safely at height, David joined Abaris International in 2018 as operations director. Abaris is one of the leading retailers of technical height and water safety equipment in the UK.
David said: “Sadly, the owner of Abaris sold his company last year and I took this as an opportunity to get back into insurance, working for Mulsanne, which is an insurer specialising in the high-risk sector of the UK motor insurance market.”
“I was setting up my own broker business which would have needed a lot of capital upfront, when I heard that the NFU were looking for a partner in the centre of Cumbria I jumped at the chance. Running my own business was always the next step in my career and being able to do it with the NFU and Amanda as a partner was an opportunity too good to miss.”