David started his career at a shellfish farm on the River Exe in South Devon in the early 1980’s having studied fish farming and fisheries management at Sparsholt Agricultural College, Hampshire. During the next 30+ years he was Managing Director of River Exe Shellfish Farms producing Pacific Oysters and Mussels within the fertile waters of the environmentally sensitive, Exe estuary. He closed the business to concentrate on SAGB matters in 2015. Having been a member of the Association since 1989, a past chairman of the Mollusc Committee, he joined the SAGB Council in 1994. He has also been a Ministerial appointee on the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee and has worked extensively with Seafish. He was appointed Assistant Director of the SAGB in the Spring of 2008 and became Chief Executive in the Summer of 2011. The SAGB aim is to assist and promote the sustainable development of the Shellfish Industry in the United Kingdom. The SAGB represents the views of shellfisheries, both wild-caught and cultivated, in debates with the Government, other users of the sea and environmental organisations. We are striving to ensure a more viable and sustainable future for UK shellfish operations. David is very well known in the shellfish sector both in the UK and overseas. His contacts with the ‘shellfish world’, are extensive and invaluable.