A 40-year veteran of the airline and aerospace industries, David has served as Chief Operating Officer for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) overseeing the nation’s air traffic control system, Chief Counsel and Acting Deputy Administrator of the FAA, and Senior Vice President of Continental Airlines. David consulted through Dazzle Partners from the end of 2013 until 2025.

With Dazzle Partners (a moniker derived from his first and last name, which he used as his “handle” while serving in Afghanistan), David brought transactional expertise and passion for operational excellence to his aerospace and new enterprise clients. Over his wide-ranging career, David spearheaded industry-shaping deals, including the SkyTeam Alliance on behalf of Continental Airlines and remediating the tenuous relationship between the FAA’s unions and management.

David built a reputation as an insightful collaborator, often seeking opportunities for synergy in the midst of opposition. His fearless approach to potential alliances stems from his early legal career in mergers and acquisitions with several New York-based law firms. Once in the aviation space, David relentlessly pursued bringing people, even competitors, together around common interests. This served him well during his tenure with Texas Air Corporation (later Continental Airlines), which was at one time the largest airline holding company in the world.

David’s roles at Continental included the marketing, strategic planning and international alliances divisions. He also founded Continental’s Customer Experience operation, bringing data-driven, customer-directed quality improvement to the airline. David was also an early champion of the SkyTeam global alliance, selling the concept within Continental and among the early partner airlines. David’s strength in envisioning combined structures that provide mutual benefit to all parties allowed him to forge the necessary relationships for a successful coalition.

In 2004, David served the State Department for 14 months, as part of the U.S. Government’s reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, overseeing aviation, roads, power and communication projects. His great regret is that investment in human capacity development was consistently overlooked in favor of more photogenic bricks-and-mortar projects. This under-investment heavily contributed to the lack of sustainability for almost all of the projects in which David was engaged.

In 2009, David was appointed by President Obama to serve as Chief Counsel for the FAA. Over the next four and a half years, David served as Acting Deputy Administrator, Chief Counsel and Chief Operating Officer. In his role as COO, David was the head of the nation’s air traffic control system. His efforts to improve the relationship between the unions and management contributed to a 60% jump in the FAA’s ranking on the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government list during his tenure.

Growing up in Georgia as the son of a brick stacker, David’s dreams began to emerge after reading an entire set of encyclopedias that his mother purchased at the grocery store. After reading that Harvard University had the world’s largest university library, David made his mind up one day to go there. He later did, earning both his bachelor’s in Government and his law degree from Harvard.

David’s passion for transactions and operations has grown throughout his career, and he views the corporate world as the greatest platform for large-scale social impact.

David has long been involved in charitable and community-building efforts. He and Anne, his wife of nearly 50 years, support numerous causes, with special interest in economic development and the strengthening of justice systems in the developing world through organizations whose efforts are motivated by a Christian view of the world and Jesus’s call to justice and redemption. In his own words, “There’s nothing greater than giving others the opportunity to dream dreams.”

David serves on several boards of directors. He and his wife Anne have three sons and nine grandchildren.