David Craddock, M.A.(Oxon.)
David Craddock is an independent consultant specialising in employee share ownership and reward management. He is a recognised authority, in the UK and worldwide, on employee share ownership and is the author of The Tolley’s Guide to Employee Share Schemes, The ICSA Employee Share Schemes Handbook, and the employee benefit scheme and tax sections in The Croner Reward A to Z Essentials of Pay and Benefits, as well as The ESOP Institute Course Study Notes for The Certificate in Employee Share Ownership Studies.
Since establishing David Craddock Consultancy Services in 1997, David has developed a varied clientele ranging from major public limited companies with international considerations to smaller private companies where the requirements are for Enterprise Management Incentives, tax-unapproved share scheme arrangements and market-making employee share trust structures. David has successfully established employee share schemes and employee benefit arrangements across Continental Europe, the Americas, the Far East, the Middle East, Australasia and Africa as well as in the U.K. and Ireland and to date has travelled into over 30 countries to personally facilitate their introduction including the launch communication to employees. He enhances his service to clients through a long experience in share reconstructions and share valuation.
Specialist Consultancy Skills in Employee Share Schemes
David’s specialist consultancy skills cover all aspects of scheme design, share capital restructuring, tax-efficiency, legal compliance, implementation, administration, communication and the on-going maintenance of the schemes. Significant success has been achieved with client companies – quoted and unquoted – in developing innovative strategies based on bespoke tax-efficient solutions in employee share ownership programmes and the design of schemes to achieve optimum response from participants at all levels in terms of performance and motivation.
David contributes regularly to conferences and seminars on employee share schemes. Contributions over the years have been made for The ESOP Centre at their international conferences in Brussels, Florence, Luxembourg, Barcelona, Rome, Davos, Cannes and Paris, for The ESOP Centre Channel Islands conferences in Jersey and Guernsey that are organized jointly with The Society for Trust and Estate Practitioners, for ProShare at their international London conference and as guest key-note speaker at their Edinburgh annual conference in 2013 and for the US-based National Centre for Employee Ownership in Chicago and San Francisco.
In November, 2005, David addressed The ESOP Centre conference in Cape Town and The Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg on his research into the linkage between employee share schemes and personal motivation. In May, 2008, he chaired and was the guest speaker at The Institute of International Research conference on Share Schemes and ESOPs held in Johannesburg.
David is the author and lecturer for the employee share scheme courses of The Institute of Chartered Secretaries in London and The Professional Training Partnership in Oxford and has made occasional television appearances in the U.K., notably through The Law Channel and The Einstein Network and contributed to radio broadcasts through the BBC.
On a regular basis, David speaks for The Institute of Directors at their employee share ownership conferences that are held at 116 Pall Mall in London. He has spoken as a guest speaker on five occasions at the conference of The World Centre for Employee Ownership in Cannes in 2001 and in 2011, in Paris in 2012 and 2018 and in Barcelona in 2013. He also spoke in Davos in 2000 at the employee share schemes conference that was organised to follow the World Economic Forum of that year. He addressed the New York High Table Event on Employee Share Ownership in March, 2014 and the 26th European Annual Conference of The European Employee Share Ownership Centre that was held in Rome in June, 2014.
David is the senior examiner for The European Centre for Employee Ownership and The ESOP Institute in London in relation to The Certificate in Employee Share Ownership Studies, the material for which he is the author and principal authority. Additionally, as an expert share valuer, he lectures on share valuation to the local society groups of The Institute of Chartered Accountants and is the Technical Secretary to The Share Valuation Worked Examples Group (“the WEG”) that represents the consultation group between practitioners and HMRC.
His writings can be found in key publications, including Tax Journal, Croner Pay and Benefits Briefing and Chartam Magazine, on a range of employee share scheme and employee benefit subjects for practical application in businesses of all sizes.
David’s research is renowned on the relationship between employee share ownership and employment levels, the strategic role of employee share ownership in a market enterprise economy, and the role of incentive in macro-economic planning by national governments. It’s been used for representations to The British Government — in relation to executive remuneration and the role of employee share schemes and equity in motivational remuneration packages, and to The European Commission — in relation to the tax-efficient use of the employee share trust in establishing succession planning in SMEs and management buy-outs.
David is a Fellow of The ESOP Institute in London. His other memberships include The Institute of Directors, The Institute of Public Accountants and The Federation of Tax Advisers through which he acts as an advocate for private clients in tax tribunal cases in the UK.
David holds an MA and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from University College, Oxford and has acquired over 30 years’ experience in the field of employee share schemes, reward management and share valuation.
d.craddock@dcconsultancyservices.com
T: +44 1782 519925 M: +44 7831 572615