Dave was born in east London, and won a Rockerfeller Scholarship to Pratt Institute in New York to study advertising. He mainly trained at Carl Ally Inc, and came back to London to work at BMP with John Webster. He became Joint Creative Director and, in 1980, he left to found Gold Greenlees Trott (GGT).
GGT was voted ‘Agency of the Year’ by Campaign and ‘Most Creative Agency in the World’ by Ad Age in New York. In 1990 Dave founded Bainsfair Sharky Trott with the Managing Directors of Saatchi & Saatchi. In 1993 he co-founded Walsh Trott Chick Smith. In 2003 this merged with The Gate and in 2005, he became Chairman until 2014.
Dave has been given the D&AD President’s Award, for lifetime achievement. He has also written three books: ‘Creative Mischief’, ‘Predatory Thinking’, and ‘1+1=3’ (to be published in June).
In the 1970s Dave set up the ‘D&AD Creative Workshop’ course. He has trained hundreds of young creatives, many of whom are now London’s top creative directors and teachers.
