David Cole
Strategic Advisor, Alder Hey Innovation, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Co-Founder Thinking of Oscar.
David is an experienced technologist, senior leader, advisor, mentor, and social-impact entrepreneur, with a passion for innovation in healthcare specialising in children’s health. David is a strategic advisor to several children’s hospitals and recently joined Alder Hey Innovation, focused on commercial growth and sustainability. David was recently awarded his MBA from the Open University with distinction, which included a research paper on the environment and resources required to advance children’s health outcomes through a culture of innovation, that delivers impact and sustainability; whilst understanding whether innovation within children’s services should differ to that of general health services.
Previously, David had a distinguished career with IBM spanning over 24 years and has experience working across the UK, Europe, Australia, and the US. Most recently he was senior leader within IBM’s healthcare consulting division, and before that as the EMEA Leader for Watson Health.
David is the co-founder of children’s charity, Thinking of Oscar, which funds technology and innovation within paediatrics, whose mission is ‘to bring the future of healthcare to children’. He hosts the Not Mini Adults Podcast – “Pioneers for Children’s Healthcare and Wellbeing”.
David is a start-up mentor, and is currently chairing a children’s health impact accelerator on behalf of Innovate UK. He was recently appointed onto the digital health committee of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and is a mentor and advisor at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
David lives in rural Oxfordshire (UK) with his wife Hannah and three young children. When his kids are not playing sport, David is a keen cricketer and triathlete, having completed his first Ironman in 2019.