David Robinson
Board member
Social Finance Board
He has worked as a community worker, focusing on social innovation for more than 40 years, co-founding and leading, amongst others, Shift (using award-winning design thinking to tackle social problems), the Children’s Discovery Centre (working on literacy and language), Changing London and Community Links. Community Links was the UK’s largest local voluntary organisation when David stepped down as CEO.
From 2007 to 2010, David led the Prime Minister’s Council for Social Action where the social impact bond was conceived. He subsequently chaired the advisory board for the Peterborough SIB—the first in the world—and now chairs the Social Finance Impact Incubator. He was the first Practitioner in Residence at the LSE’s Marshall Institute and is an Ashoka Senior Fellow.