About David Ashenden

“Speed is easy. Judgment is earned.”

I'm David Ashenden. Twenty-five years, four rungs, in that order: engineer, architect, product lead, exec. I climbed it the hard way round, which means I've written the code, drawn the system, run the team, and sat in the room where a decision gets signed off with somebody's job attached to the answer. Subversive is what I built once I'd done all four.

Why "Subversive"?

Because telling the truth in a corporate meeting room is about the most subversive thing left. Rory Sutherland once observed that people who want to win the argument will ignore human truths to protect their model. That happens inside companies of every size, and somewhere in the building everyone already half-knows it. Nobody in the room has permission to say so out loud. I'm that permission. No hundred-slide deck nobody reads twice, no workshop dressed up as strategy. Just the work that moves the number.

The Network

I lead every engagement myself, which is a formal way of saying you get the person you met. Nobody here works the pitch and then hands you to a stranger once the contract's signed. When a job needs a specialist, and some do, I bring one in by name, on my paper, under my insurance. No juniors, no padding, no unnamed "senior consultant" quietly billed at graduate rates.