David Holland, Senior Partner, Scansion

David Holland is a strategy consultant and executive with 20 years of experience in arts, culture, and the creative economy with nonprofits, higher education institutions, philanthropy, and businesses globally. As Senior Partner at strategy consulting firm Scansion, he works at the intersection of creativity, business, and policy to drive innovative solutions across sectors. His assignments at Scansion span strategic planning, research and analysis, and evaluation projects with a focus on complex stakeholder facilitation, community engagement process and survey design, policy analysis, and strategy development. He previously served as Deputy Director at Creative West, where he led advocacy and public policy programs, external relations, fundraising, and consulting services across 16 states/jurisdictions and nationally. His major initiatives there included co-developing the Pacific Initiative; co-designing the Arts and the Rural West Seminar; launching the Creative Vitality™ Summit (an international conference on the creative economy); founding the Western Arts Advocacy Network (WAAN); and leading the development of Washington state’s Creative Economy Strategic Plan.

He has also held leadership and senior management roles at the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston, child welfare research and design lab Think of Us, VCU da Vinci Center, VCUarts, ART 180, Arts & Business (UK), Nesta (a UK innovation foundation), BOP Consulting (UK), and the National Campaign for the Arts (UK). A Salzburg Global Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he has advised organizations such as Salzburg Global Seminar, the Inter-American Development Bank, the National Endowment for the Arts, United States Artists, and B3 Media. Holland serves as the Co-Chair of the Creative States Coalition, a national network of cultural advocacy organizations. He also serves as the Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Clyfford Still Museum and on the Advisory Board of the Center for Cultural Affairs at Indiana University. He holds degrees in economics and Asian studies from Amherst College and master’s degrees in international studies and art history from the University of London, SOAS.