Developing Future-Ready Approaches to Crises and Disasters?

David Wales MSc CCXP FRSA is the Founder of SharedAim Ltd, an innovative customer experience consultancy established to help organizations design and deliver human-centered services.

Prior to this, he had a distinguished career in the fire and rescue service (FRS) where he instigated and led a pioneering study of human behavior and motivation that continues to be influential on thinking and practice in the UK and internationally. David introduced the concept of Customer Experience to the UK FRS and was selected to take the lead as its first Customer Experience Manager.

As an operational fire officer, he attended thousands of emergencies in various roles and oversaw the UK response to the first fire in the channel tunnel for which he received a commendation. While fire investigation manager, he developed a pioneering combined service model and wrote the national guidance for fire investigation practice. 

He has worked extensively with academia and his own research continues to focus on the human experience of emergencies. He completed his MSc in Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Management at the University of Leicester, with a dissertation titled Unrecognised: The public role as first responders to dwelling fires. 

David is an Advisor to the Avoidable Deaths Network and was recently appointed as Lead of the Programme to develop a design competition for the World Humanitarian Forum.

He works with commercial organizations, professional bodies, government departments, and emergency/humanitarian agencies, allowing him to transfer insights and practice between sectors.