David Murrin began his unique career in the oil exploration business, amongst the jungles of Papua New Guinea and the southwestern Pacific islands, engaging with the numerous tribes of the Sepik River and exploring the mineral composition of the region. Before the age of adventure tourism this region was highly dangerous, very uncertain and local indigenous groups were often hostile and cannibalistic. He kept his head!

In the early 1980’s David embarked on a new career joining JP Morgan in New York on their internal MBA equivalent finance program. Once back in the London, he traded FX, Bonds, equities and commodities on JPM’s first European Prop desk. In ’91, he founded and managed JPM’s highly successful European Market Analysis Group, developing new behavioural investment techniques which were utilised at the highest level of the bank.

In 1993 David founded Apollo Asset Management, and in 1997 co-founded Emergent Asset Management as CIO. His primary role was overseeing trading across all fund products, as well as being particularly active in the firm’s private equity business, He co-founded Emvest, Emergent’s African land fund in 2008 and acted as its Chairman until its sale from the group in 2011. In addition through Emergent’s Advisory Business, David was responsible for the critical fund raising for Heritage Oil allowing it to expand significantly by investing in its Uganda exploration program. He took full control of Emergent in 2011 combining his management of the Geomacro fund with the role of Chief Executive Officer.

David has been described as a polymath and his career of more than three decades has been focussed on finding deep-seated ‘patterns’ in history and using them to try and predict the future for markets and society in today’s turbulent times. He has a remarkable track record.

David’s advisory and speaking work today is based on his direct investment experience combined with a framework that can be used to explain and qualify decisions within an investment team, aid risk assessment, and reduce biases in collective investment decisions.

Since his early 30’s David has owned and raced the famous classic racing yacht Cetewayo. The vessel is occasionally also used as part of senior management team strategy days.

David has written two books; Breaking the Code of History, which, post 9/11, recognising that the world had changed in an instant, highlights the key process in human social structures that impact on today’s changing world.

His 2018 published book Lions Led By Lions, focusses on Britain’s involvement in the First World War and the achieved learning curve of its leadership.

David offers audiences powerful practical insights into the forces for transformation of the world’s power systems, challenging entrenched assumptions, and sharing astute practical examples from history amongst today’s turbulent realities.