David G.W. Birch

David G.W. Birch Speaker Biography

David G.W. Birch is an author, advisor, and commentator on digital financial services. He is Global Ambassador for Consult Hyperion (the secure electronic transactions consultancy that he helped to found), Technology Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (the London-based think tank), a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey Business School and holds a number of board-level advisory roles. Before helping to found Consult Hyperion in 1986, he spent several years working as a consultant in Europe, the Far East, and North America. He graduated from the University of Southampton with a B.Sc (Hons.) in Physics.

Dave was named one of the global top 15 favourite sources of business information (Wired magazine) and one of the top ten most influential voices in banking (Financial Brand); created one of the top 25 “must read’ financial IT blogs; was found to be one of the top ten Twitter accounts followed by innovators, along with Bill Gates and Richard Branson (PR Daily); was ranked in the top three most influential people in London’s FinTech community (City A.M.), was voted one of the European “Top 40” people in digital financial services (Financial News), was listed of the world’s top 100 most influential FinTech leaders (Hot Topics) and rated Europe’s most influential commentator on emerging payments (Total Payments).

Described at the Oxford Internet Institute as “one of Britain’s most acute observers of the internet and social networks”, in The Telegraph as “one of the world’s leading experts on digital money”, in The Independent as a "grade-A geek", by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation as "one of the most user-friendly of the UK's uber-techies" and in Financial World as "mad", he has lectured to MBA level on the impact of new information and communications technologies. A member of the editorial board for Payments & Fintech Lawyer, he has contributed to publications ranging from the Parliamentary IT Review to The Financial Times and wrote a column in The Guardian for many years. A media commentator on electronic business issues, he has appeared on BBC television and radio, Sky and other channels around the world.

His most recent book Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin: From money we understand to money that understands us was published in 2017 with a foreword by Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England. In the London School of Economics (LSE) Review of Books, it was described as a timely and illuminating contribution which should be widely read by graduate students of finance, financial law, and related topics, as well as policymakers involved in financial regulation.

The London Review of Books called his previous book Identity is the New Money (2014) fresh, original, wide-ranging and the best book on general issues around new forms of money.