David will be speaking at Prestel & Partner’s Family Office Forum in Singapore on 16-17 May. Topic: Pruning the TreeMany families that share significant assets may at some point consider whether to continue managing their wealth, business, or philanthropy together or going their separate ways. These questions can arise when a conflict or crisis hits, and they are forced to make decisions.
On 22 March, David will be speaking at PWN’s event in Auckland. Many families that share significant assets may at some pointconsider whether to continue managing their wealth, business orphilanthropy together or going their separate ways. These questionscan arise when a conflict or crisis hits and they are forced to makedecisions.This moderated roundtable discussion will explore different familyperspectives and experiences to managing shared wealth as well asways to help you think about whether sharing assets…
David will be a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School’s Families in Business executive education course in November. He will lecture on family governance and teach a case study on estate planning.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Matthew Stafford. The guy has a huge arm, and can make pretty-much any throw, and there he was stuck at the Lions teasing us. From time to time, they would support him with a deep threat and something of a rushing attack, but they were not able to put all the pieces together. So the swapsie deal that brought him to the Rams seemed like the ultimate test…
The lockdowns of varying degrees currently being experienced in Melbourne and Sydney highlight the deep fissures and inequalities prevalent in large cities. Rather than a tale of two cities, it’s a tale of two halves within each city. While these generalisations are very broad, they are indicative of a number of factors that start with the socioeconomic status (SES) variation across different suburbs within the city. This is not a simple case of rich vs…

Management guru Peter Drucker gave us “what gets measured gets managed” (for better or worse). Governments bombard us daily with COVID-related statistics, but many of them are measuring the wrong things. The most common statistic is “new cases per day”, but that has serious deficiencies. Firstly, it’s quoted as an absolute number, rather than as a proportion of the population. So in the early days of COVID, the US had huge daily numbers, but as a country…

(Disclaimers: I’m politically aligned to the right, live in Melbourne, and the current outbreaks are far from over) COVID has become highly politicised; we might more accurately say it has brought out the worst of our political partisanship. The national cabinet is a fractured mix of a Liberal Prime Minister and mostly Labor State Premiers. The state response has followed a pattern along political lines, with Labor Premiers favouring lockdowns, and Gladys in NSW playing…

What’s the best thing about Australia? It’s far from everywhere.What’s the worst thing about Australia? It’s far from everywhere.Isolated & strong borders, reversed seasons. In the world of COVID, these would appear to be a blessing. When COVID first emerged, the cold winter in the northern hemisphere contributed to its rapid spread. In Australia, the warmer climate helped reduce the spread, and together with border control and quarantine, we were largely able to get things…

You might describe the Superbowl matchup as the standout team of the season (and current title-holder) versus the team that currently has Tom Brady at QB. Showing no signs of hangover, the Chiefs have put together a near-flawless season. On offence, Mahomes keeps getting better and has a array of powerful weapons, including his own mobility and legs. His speedsters can run deep routes, but are equally able to get the ball with a screen,…

“I am, you are, we are Australian”, wrote The Seekers in a beautiful expression of national identity that spans our very diverse origins. While through COVID-10 we ought to feel especially blessed to live on this remote, island nation, the experience has highlighted the structural essence of our nation like nothing else could. As most Australians know, our country is a federation of states that were originally separate self-governing colonies, and chose to come together…