David Horne / Advisory Board

David trained as a Chartered Accountant with PWC and has 30+ years of post-qualification experience. Initially based in their Victoria, Canada office, after qualifying in 1987 he moved to PWC’s office in Zurich, Switzerland. Since 1993 he has been based in London. He speaks fluent German, reasonable French and basic Italian.

After 10 years with blue-chip companies AT&T and the BBC, in 2000 David joined an acquisitive PR agency out of New York called BSMG as European CFO. With a brief of growth by acquisition (and New York’s chequebook!) David acquired 7 PR agencies in the UK, Belgium and Germany. BSMG was acquired by IPG and merged into Weber Shandwick in 2001. David left at the end of that year. Since then he has worked exclusively with entrepreneurial companies, including 8 years as CFO of two groups listed on AIM, the junior market of the London Stock Exchange. He was a non-executive director of The Centre, a Brussels-based strategic communications business from start-up through to sale in 2010 to Edelman.

During his career, David has raised over £100 million in external funding and bought or sold more than 20 companies. He has been advising the founders at Apollo since 2013.