David is the Founder and Director of Entrepreneurs Unlocked CIC and holds the small organisations seat on the RR3. Entrepreneurs Unlocked CIC is a Social Enterprise with a vision to change futures through entrepreneurship, working with people in prison and on probation who wish to explore their potential and lead crime free lives by becoming their own boss.
He has 14 years of experience prisoner education and rehabilitation, progressing from a tutor to a start-up coach to finally becoming the lead for enterprise and self-employment for the largest provider of prison education in England. As a result, over 40 prisons developed their courses that enabled people to explore how they could utilise their skills talents to be their own boss on release.
Then in 2018, through a Churchill Fellowship programme, he travelled to the US to research prison and community entrepreneurship programmes with exceptionally low rates of re-offending. The rate of re-offending of these programmes was less than 10% compared to the US average of 60% within 2 years of release.
This learning was the catalyst for him to “walk the talk” and set up Entrepreneurs Unlocked CIC at the end of 2019. Since then, over 500 people have accessed these programmes to start their entrepreneurial journey.