by Gordon Nary
Gordon: Please tell us about your background.
David: I was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in India into a family that valued hard work and emphasized the importance of giving back to society. My parents didn’t have it easy. My father, the eldest of four brothers, was a teenager when his own dad died suddenly. He then took on the role of breadwinner, keeping a roof over their heads, taking care of his mother and ensuring that his brothers finished school.
My mother was in an orphanage when she was virtually adopted by the English nuns who ran St Mary’s School in Poona (now Pune). The school was literally her home and her permanent address, and she regarded the nuns as her treasured family. When my parents got married, one of the nuns journeyed across the country by train – a three-day journey each way – to walk my mother down the aisle.
I’m the youngest of four brothers and my siblings were all high achievers in their respective careers, so I had fairly high standards to match up to! I learnt many things from them, including one particular skill that enabled me in my college years to save the life of a young boy who would otherwise have drowned in a deserted swimming pool. I actually wrote about that recently for the first time and you can read it here.
Gordon: Please tell us about your time at St Joseph's College, North Point, in Darjeeling.
David: When I was a kid, the biggest disciplinary threat for any Indian boy was: “You step out of line and you’ll be sent straight to boarding school”. But more than anything else in my primary school years, that’s precisely what I wanted. I remember sitting the three-hour entrance exam on my birthday and hoping that the significance of the date would work in my favour. Clearly, it did!
North Point, the school best known by its geographical location, looks straight out onto the Himalayas, a view dominated by Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain. That mountain range was the first thing we saw every morning.
The school was founded in 1888 by a Belgian Jesuit, Fr Henri Depelchin SJ. As I explained a couple of months ago in this LinkedIn post, I believe his far-sighted design principles substantially reduced bullying. What I learned there from the Belgian and Canadian Jesuits, as well as an Indian Jesuit, Fr Victor Tucker SJ, and our erudite lay headmaster, Maurice Banerjei, went far deeper than mere classroom lessons. The school emphasised culture, respect and community spirit – values that today's leading companies spend millions to foster. Long after I finished school, I stayed in touch with those Jesuits, exchanging letters with them in the pre-Internet era, because I regarded them as life guides. In fact, before my wife and I were married, I took her to Darjeeling to visit the school and meet the men and women who taught me to be a man for others.
Along with these valuable life skills, there were two significant events at North Point – outside of classroom hours when I was 13 years old – that were later to shape my career. First, I taught myself how to type on a huge, heavy typewriter, because I wanted to help produce the school periodical, called ‘Among Ourselves’. Second, I learnt how to work in a photography darkroom – mixing chemicals, developing film and printing black and white images. To me, that was pure magic, and using a sliding enlarger taught me the value of composition. Both those skills shaped my early career as a journalist and also defined my interest as a photographer blessed to take my cameras to some of the furthest points in our wonderful world.
Gordon :That phrase, “my early career as a journalist” indicates a journey that unfolded in unexpected ways ….
Daviv: Exactly, Gordon. When I graduated with an Honours degree in English Literature from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, I was offered a job as a sub-editor on a prominent national weekly magazine called ‘Sunday’, published by the ABP Group. Not long after, I was offered a role at their sister publication, ‘Sportsworld’, a national weekly masthead that gave me a series of incredible opportunities, including the role of associate editor when I was only in my mid-twenties.
My wife and I then made the big decision to move to Melbourne, where we became first-time parents in a new city. I spent some very rewarding years at ‘The Age and ‘The Sunday Age’. After I became the managing editor in charge of production, I moved to the Murdoch-owned News Ltd, where I was shortlisted for two National News awards and made the finals of the national Walkley Awards.
But I could see the growth of the digital space, an area that really grabbed my interest. Then, in early 2012, I was offered a role which entailed moving to Singapore to work at ‘The Straits Times’, a historic broadsheet launched in 1845. Their major focus was a digital-first approach, and this gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in a new field, albeit using the collective experience I had acquired in print media.
While I was in Singapore, my next move was to the world of technology, when SAP, the German-owned global technology giant, outlined a specific role that immediately ticked all my boxes. What I learnt there about corporate culture, innovation, leadership, digital communication initiatives and working across geographical boundaries in a fast-paced company with 110,000 employees was amazing. Most importantly, it was SAP’s huge focus on making the world a better place, and giving back to communities in need, that really aligned with my own upbringing and the values that my wife and I have passed on to our children.
Gordon: You currently serve as Communications Manager at The Society of Jesus in Australia. What are your primary responsibilities?
David: For me, this role truly is about coming full circle. As a schoolboy at North Point, I wore the letter IHS on my heart – they were an integral component of our school badge on my uniform blazer. And now, here I am, back in the everyday company of Jesuits. I think the people who taught me at North Point, all of whom have passed now, would be delighted to know where my career has taken me.
We deliver a comprehensive suite of communication services to the Province, including strategic communication, executive communications, media relations, as well as issues and crisis management. The strong Jesuit ethos as well as Ignatian spirituality underpin everything we do here. Your readers can be the judge of everything my colleague and I have achieved in the 18 months I’ve spent in this role by checking out the huge variety of subjects we cover on the Province website.
My move to this role at the Australian Province had its beginnings in December 2022. A recruiter contacted me and said, “You’d be perfect for this role”. Two of my bosses at SAP – Jeanette Tan, a VP there, and Yan Uhl, a CFO – readily agreed to be my referees, which really says a lot about the spirit of SAP. When I got this role at the Province, I immediately told both of them I was moving “from a 50-year old European company with a huge global presence and an active interest in making the world a better place, to the Jesuits, a 480-year-old European body with a huge global presence and committed to making the world a better place.”
Gordon: Thank you for a great interview.
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