About Minerva
Our Name
Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom, but also Strategic War. We seek to emulate her wisdom and knowledge by working with our clients to develop a better understanding of our fractured and disordered world.
Why We Started Minerva Strategy
Geopolitics has never been more critical – to our businesses and our lives. Although our global trading system is splintering, we still live in a globalized world where seemingly random or developing events thousands of miles away can impact us in ways we didn’t expect.
On the 23rd of February 2022, none of the major companies operating in Russia thought that within weeks, they would be closing multi-billion dollar operations or taking multi-billion dollar write-downs on their balance sheets.
We’re political obsessives, but we also take a broader view, looking at the historic, economic and above all, geographic realities that determine the relationships between state and non-state actors.
We exist to help you understand geopolitical risk, find the signal amongst the noise, the clarity in the mess, and the ability to make sense of where your priorities lay and what choices to make.
David Oliver. Geopolitical Strategy Expert.
David has over 25 years of advising across sectors as diverse as finance, energy, mining, pharmaceuticals and the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry.
David began his career in British Politics before moving into consulting and then business, where he led cross-functional international teams as a senior executive in some of the world’s largest, high-profile corporations (Cadbury, Kraft & Mondelez International).
His roles included being Head of Global Public Affairs for Cadbury plc, London (2008-10), Head of European External Affairs for Kraft Foods, Brussels & Zurich (2010-12), Head of Corporate Affairs Northern Europe for Mondelez International, London (2012-15), and Head of Global Public & Government Affairs, London & Chicago (2015-19).
David’s expertise includes understanding the major centres of global politics and regulation and the shifting political polarities as the global economic & political order becomes more fractured.
He has also dealt with many major political crises and the effects these had, including major macro events like the 2007-09 financial crisis and the following European debt crisis, Brexit, and the major political upheavals that have taken place in many major G7 & G20 countries.
David has hands-on experience dealing with country-level crises, including aggressive tax litigation in Russia, punitive regulatory issues in emerging markets, and corporate reputational crises.
He has extensive experience working with C-Suite and VP+ executives at Rio Tinto, The Royal Bank of Canada, British Telecom, the Canadian Federal Public Service, the Ontario Public Service, Mattamy Homes, Loblaws, Sobeys, CPPIB, Sleep Country Canada, The University of Toronto and Rotman Business School.
David studied at the University of Manchester (BA Hons, Politics & Modern History), and is also an accredited Executive Coach with a Postgraduate Award for Neuroscience & Psychology (Henley Business School, University of Reading). He is a published writer and broadcaster, making regular contributions to The National Post, The Globe & Mail and appearing on Bloomberg and other global news platforms.
He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
David originally hails from the UK and is now also a proud Canadian citizen.
Minerva Executive Leadership
David is an International Coach Federation (ICF) accredited Executive Coach and Facilitator. He often uses these skills of inquiry in his geopolitical work, but can also deploy them to individual and team coaching assignments.
He also carried two psychometrics assessment licenses (Hogan, Birkman International).
If you are interested in Executive Coaching, Team Facilitation or Executive Assessment, please contact David here.