David Gustave

Early Life and education

Born in London in 1967, Dawood was raised in Peckham. As a boy of mixed Irish and St Lucian heritage growing up in a predominantly white working-class neighbourhood, he found himself confronted by a strange social dynamic. While frequently facing racism, in the form of verbal and physical abuse from neighbours, he also received respect on individual level from people who got to know him personally but otherwise expressed racist views. This formed the basis for his life-long interest in dialogue and inclusion.

His early education was, in many ways, alienating. At 16, uninterested in what school had to offer, he left full-time education. That same year, struggling with a difficult relationship with his father, he also left home. He spent the next 15 years finding various ways, some legal and others less so, to make a living.

At 30 years old, events in his personal life inspired him to change the course of his life. His trade union encouraged and supported him to enrol in an adult education course at Ruskin College in Oxford in 1998. He completed and excelled at the A-level and undergraduate equivalency courses he took there.

A history professor at The University of Oxford read a paper he wrote as part of the assessment of one course. She encouraged him to apply to read history as an undergraduate. Somewhat reluctantly and speculatively, Dawood applied to Wadham College. He successfully interviewed and was accepted, matriculating in 1999 at the age of 32.

Post-Oxford career

On graduating in 2002, Dawood won a number of scholarships from the Middle Temple to pursue a career at the Bar. He studied for the Graduate Diploma in Law at City University.

His passion for dialogue, inclusion and justice still remained strong. Therefore, in 2002 instead of continuing his studies and taking up pupillage, he decided to work with young people at street level and try to make a difference that way. Initially, he worked at South Camden Community School in the London Borough of Camden. Then, in 2006, he took up the role of Educational Motivator at Kids Company to work with young gang members and get them on track to university.

Dawood left Kids Company in 2014. In his 8 years there he not only got over 200 young people into university, but also got them access to and raised funds from many major corporates. His influence ranged far beyond his Educational Motivator role, leading to several television appearances, speaking engagements with companies and government, ranking in The Independent’s Happy List alternative to rich lists, and plaudits as a “social visionary.”

After Oxford, Gustave won a number of Scholarships from the Middle Temple to pursue a career at the Bar. It was here that he decided to make a difference and impart his knowledge at a street-level. For the past 4 years Gustave has been working with young gang members at Kids Company as an Educational Motivator. Gustave has been described as a ‘Social Visionary’. He was featured in Channel 4’s ‘Disarming Britain’ debate alongside Dawn Butler, Dominic Grieve and Peter Hitchens and in the ‘CNN Heroes’ Series alongside Russell Symonds. Gustave states ‘he is not content with fulfilling his own ambitions, but is determined to help others to set and reach theirs’. Gustave has been described in the media as the ‘British Obama’ Gustave is a member of the Labour Party.

Reluctantly Brave

Dawood co-founded Reluctantly Brave in 2012 as a dynamic alternative to the siloed, anti-creative consultancy and creative industry world. He is its Chief & Imagination Officer.

He established the company with a vision for better commercial outcomes coming from an agency that is not just the same middle class people that dominate the consultancy/creative scene in the UK and US.

Inclusion lies at the heart of the vision, based on his insight (since supported by several studies) that diversity of thinking breeds better innovation. A drive to gather diverse talent also answers Dawood’s lifelong concern for dialogue as the basis for a better world.

The company aims to change the face of the consulting and creative agency world by bringing its streamlined, gig-consultant approach to introducing the best quality, widest ranging thinking to industry-leading companies across multiple sectors. Hence its claim to be the “future of consultancy, now.” Due to Dawood’s unwavering vision for innovation through diversity, the blend of brilliant minds includes a group of 16-24 year-old people from a huge variety of backgrounds.

Numerous clients have bought into and received the commercial benefits of this bold approach, including Louis Dreyfus Company, Starbucks, Boots Opticians, Kellogg's, cutting edge tech start-ups, major UK retailers and a large US law firm.

Awards & honours

Dawood was recently honoured to be the first black or mixed race person to have their portrait hung on the wall of Wadham College, Oxford. His other awards and honours include:

Media appearances

An influencer in a number of fields, Dawood has written, spoken or been featured in: