David Freud’s first career was as a journalist, training in Cardiff on the Western Mail and then moving to the Financial Times, where he spent his last four years writing the Lex Column. In 1984 he began his second career, in the City, where he specialised in equity markets, company, flotations, and transport. His most dramatic deal was the flotation of Eurotunnel in the teeth of Black Monday. He ended up as Vice Chairman at UBS before retiring in 2003. Afterwards he wrote a book on the experience called Freud in the City.
A spectacular failure as a retiree, he took up a job as a CEO of the Portland Trust, which worked on both sides of the Israel/Palestine divide. Here he designed the initiative to rebuild Rawabi, the first planned city for Palestinians in modern times.
He also produced an independent report for the UK Labour Government on welfare to work in 2007, called Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity. This led to a job as Conservative Minister for Welfare Reform (2010-16), where he worked to reshape the British welfare system. In particular he was involved in creating and shaping Universal Credit, to break the poverty line and welfare traps.
He created the grand mentors programme in 2009, working with the charity Volunteering Matters. This provides older mentors for children leaving care. He became President of Volunteering Matters in 2019.