Dave is a former National President of the New Zealand China Friendship Society. He was also a member of the New Zealand China Council Advisory Board and remains Vice-chair (international) of the Beijing-based NGO International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives (ICCIC - Gung Ho).

Dave has been visiting China since 1991 and from 2001 his main area of activity has been as a rural development consultant. Since 2008 he has also developed and led a number of tours to ‘backblocks’ China, often based around project rural communities.

He has a moderate level of fluency in Chinese, which has been an essential factor in his ease of working and traveling in China.