Dr David Cooke

Dr David Cooke joined the Champions of Change 2017 Group at its inception in 2017.

David is the Chair of the UN Global Compact Network Australia and of the UNSW Australian Human Rights Institute Advisory Committee. He is also a non-executive director of Sustainalytics and Cambodian charity AFESIP and is an Adjunct Professor at UTS Business School. He has served on the Federal Government’s multi-stakeholder advisory group on business and human rights.

David’s most recent executive role was as the first non-Japanese Managing Director of global technology firm Konica Minolta Australia. His career in the IT industry spans over 30 years.

David Cooke completed a doctorate in 2008 entitled “Building Social Capital though Corporate Social Investment” which dealt with the role of profit–making corporations in furthering the work of the NGO sector. His work was awarded the Globally Responsible Leadership award for Social Impact in 2011 and in 2014 he was awarded the Top Alumnus of the last 20 years by the Southern Cross University Business School. In 2020 he was awarded a doctorate honoris causa by Edith Cowan University for the implementation of responsible business initiatives in addressing modern slavery within corporate supply chains.

David has always sought to establish a work environment that fosters equity, diversity and inclusiveness. In 2016, Konica Minolta was the first in industry to receive the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation and has retained this citation in each of the following years.