David Aeron-Thomas is a Senior Policy Fellow in Sustainable Development at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).
“I joined this great team in September 2020 to work principally on the BEAR Project - working in a research collaboration to support the Biscay region in developing a fiscal policy that is aligned with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a world first.
David is a metrics expert, a qualified chartered accountant and engineer. He specialises in helping organisations grapple with sustainability using measurement. He began his career as an auditor then became a management consultant and investigator for KPMG. Whilst there he also set up KMPG’s stakeholder reporting in the UK and was seconded as Group Finance Director for a listed company. He developed the concept and practical use of Social Return on Investment (SROI) for the UK, with the New Economics Foundation. David went on to help formulate global SROI standards with practitioners from Europe and the USA. As head of metrics at Forum for the Future he developed specialist sustainability measurement and valuation tools to help clients manage their businesses both profitably and sustainably – for example the Environmental Impact Analyser for Akzo Nobel, which he also helped to roll out globally.
David has an MA in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford and an Advanced Diploma in Sustainability from the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.