I’m an independent consultant that helps you deploy information and communications technology that supports your business strategy, that is an IT/ICT or software development plan specific to your business. I work directly with a small number of clients and indirectly with many more via third party suppliers and specialist consultants. 

About Me

I have 20 plus years of knowledge that covers business management and the breadth and depth of information, communication, security and compliance technologies across three continents.

I’ve delivered ICT systems for small businesses and big brand companies, managed software research and development for major software vendors including Dr Solomon’s(now McAfee), Symantec and MessageLabs as well as dozens of small to medium sized firms across many industry verticals.

During six years on the board of the Internet Industry Association I worked with government on privacy, copyright and spam legislation, in online security and safety working groups. I’ve also worked with global organisations on communications standards whilst Chairman of the XMPP Standards Association, XMPP is commonly known as Jabber IM and is used by companies such as Cisco, Google & Facebook.

Key Achievements

Internet Industry Association - Member of the Board of Directors for six years.  The IIA provides policy input to government and advocacy on a range of business and regulatory issues, to promote laws and initiatives which enhance access, equity, reliability and growth of the internet. Examples of initiatives I helped develop and be taken up by government are the Australian Anti-Spam Act which is seen as the global bench mark for anti-spam regulation and the National Broadband Network, the largest infrastructure project in Australian history.

The XMPP Standards Foundation – Chairman for one year. Is a global, independent, nonprofit standards development organization whose primary mission is to define open protocols real-time communication and collaboration. This organisation feeds into the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) to deliver the standards required for instant messaging to work across many vendor solutions, e.g. Facebook, Google and Cisco chat.

Adobe MAX Awards – Specified, designed and managed the development of a cross platform (Windows & Mac) desktop IM and microblogging (Twitter) app and corresponding application server for business use resulting in Cleartext getting an Honorable Mention @ 2010 Adobe MAX Awards, a global competition.

ReadWriteWeb.com - Cleartext was selected as a leading global real time communications company being listed on ReadWriteWeb’s Top 50 Companies in 2009 – Click through for details.

Cleartext Pty Ltd – Founder and MD. Launch a SaaS company and be profitable within the first year. Successfully design, build and deploy a SaaS/Cloud Enterprise IM platform with first customer sale being a UK commodities trader in the City of London.  In the early 2000′s designed and built a secure IM client and server called CipherIM (blog article)

Virtual Global Task Force on Online Child Abuse – Invited to attend, and attended the Virtual Global Taskforce Working Group by the Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) to collaborate with representatives from the Crime Centre, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, FBI, Interpol, UK National Crime Squad and US Customs. This working group aims to bring together law enforcement with industry representatives to explore realistic opportunities for detecting and reducing the incidence of this crime.

Parliament of Australia – Gave evidence at the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Austrian Crime Commission hearing into Cybercrime.

MessageLabs – Technical Director APAC. Manage deployment of APAC SaaS infrastructure in Australia and Hong Kong, managing vendor purchases (HP, Cisco etc), data centres and 24×7 operational and technical support. Advise senior management on technology trends and capabilities for both internal systems and product delivery.

Targa Tasmania –  Driver! Ran in this 5 day international tarmac rally (for sporting cars) winning a Gold Trophy for completing every competitive stage within the time limit for each stage in three consecutive years. Demonstrates complicated project management and logistical skills.

Symantec – Regional Manager Security response. Setup and managed a team of developers and security analysts to deliver Symantec’s APAC Security response capability to corporate clients. The APAC R&D team were the ‘skunk works’ for various leading edge technology projects and dramatically improved technical support in APAC.

Dr Solomon’s – Senior Management. Setup manufacturing and quality systems, software development, technical support a product management teams and later the operational part of Dr Solomon’s USA as VP Operations and Customer Service.

Online Presence

LinkedIn Profile
Zerply Profile
Facebook Page
Personal Twitter Account
Personal Web Site

Company Details
Now based west of central London and ideally placed to service companies in the M4/M40 corridor, greater and City of London. Our services are available globally online and from David personally within a 20/30 mile radius of High Wycombe.

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Cleartext Ltd is trading as Cleartext and Cleartext Systems, registered UK company number 07815947. VAT Number 124 / 383821