David McKnight

David joined Edelman in 2007 to lead First&42nd, Edelman’s CSR consulting business. His priority is the provision of strategic consultancy to existing clients and the further development of the practice. David has over 17 years’ experience across the whole spectrum of CSR activities for multinational corporations in various sectors.

Prior to joining First&42nd, David was a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young and developed their CSR report assurance and consulting services. He managed Ernst & Young’s key CSR reporting engagements for leading multi-nationals. He contributed to the evolution of the Accountability AA1000 standards and is participating in the Global Reporting Initiative on the application of their GRI G3 Guidance.

David had led consulting projects to develop CSR strategies and programmes, assess and manage risks, develop KPIs, engage with stakeholders and prepare for corporate reporting. Specific projects include climate change strategy development for a utility company, analysing CSR trends across 12 emerging markets for a tobacco company, developing guidance on social impact assessment and social investment for an oil company, and evaluating CSR risk management for a FMCG company.

David has undertaken CSR projects in more than 30 countries. His academic background is chemical engineering followed by postgraduate business studies.