MEET THE MAESTRO INTERVIEW

David- Maestro advisory board member

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At Maestro, we know there’s more to life than work. In our “Meet the Maestro” series, we peek beyond the CV to discover what makes our Maestros tick.

We count our lucky stars to have David Redhill on our board. David is a global brand and strategy powerhouse with 18+ years at Deloitte as Global Consulting CMO and Senior Partner. With a career spanning top firms like Landor and PwC, plus award-winning work in media, authorship and tech, David brings sharp insight, creative firepower and cross-sector experience to help leaders and brands cut through and make a dent. David is a fierce defender of creativity and knows how to hunt for uncommon insight. His ability to find a creative way into a thorny problem is unrivalled. We’ve already learned a ton from David and are incredibly grateful for the creative spark, strategic depth and human insight he brings to the team.

1. What do you do and what is your superpower that makes you incredible at what you do?

On a business level, I’m part marketer, part strategist, part communicator, part creative. I curate or develop ideas, and blend words, music and images that I borrow or create myself, to try and move people to do something. My superpower is that I don’t really have one - I know a little about a lot of things, and a lot about a few things, so I find it easy to bring the best out of people around me who are much better at what they do than me.

2. Tell us about a career highlight to date…

Winning two Cannes Lions for creative strategy on our Great Barrier Reef valuation - the first ever Lions won by Deloitte - was a peak. But then, so was having a jam with Youssou N’Dour in Senegal while there on assignment. You make your luck in this game.

3. Talk us through an unusual career choice you’ve made along the way…

Turning down a highly paid opportunity with a Swiss bank in favour of an undefined role in a design agency in London in the mid-90’s was not a sensible move for someone with his first mortgage…but it proved to be the best thing I ever did.

4. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A novelist. Still haven’t given up on that one….

5. What are your passions outside of work and how do you make time for them?

Family and friends. Guitar and photography. Surfing, skiing, tennis. Music - listening to it, composing it, performing it, and watching others make the magic. Golf. And golf, and golf. 

6. If you could instantly master any skill or hobby, what would it be and why?

Wingsuit flying, and golf. Ridiculous, I know. But I can’t imagine getting a more intense rush of adrenalin than jumping off a cliff and reaching terminal velocity. Nor can I imagine the joy of actually hitting the bloody ball where I want it to go.  From the extreme to the ridiculous - and both equally challenging to master.

7. What’s a personal value or belief that guides the way you live your life?

Treat everyone as you’d have them treat you, and look everywhere for learnings. They’re connected: you’ll get the most blinding insights from those you least expect, if you’re kind and respectful towards them.

8. What’s a challenge you’ve overcome outside of work that shaped you?

Moving to a part of Spain in the 1980s where nobody spoke English and I didn’t know a soul, starting a new life, and reinventing myself. It gave me the confidence to go anywhere and do anything, and proved to me that Charlemagne was right: to have another language is to have a second soul. 

9. What do you think your job will look like in 10 years time?

I see a little desk next to a window with a view, a cup of steaming coffee, and a printed manuscript awaiting edits.

10. If you could travel anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go and what would you do?

Iceland, looking for a live volcano to photograph.

11. What does success look like to you?

In business, working for a cause or an idea you believe in, and seeing others embrace and share the idea themselves.

Outside one’s work, success means a healthy, happy, loving life.