Daniel David is a distinguished media businessman in Mozambique and the CEO & Chairman of DHD Holding (a business group that develops its activities in various business areas, such as Real Estate, Technology and events production) and the SOICO Group.
Considered one of Africa’s top 15 entrepreneurs (Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 – Ernst & Young), Daniel became one of the most influential men in Mozambique in 2000 after creating the Independent Society of Communication (SOICO) comprised of the television channel “STV” (2002), the international cable news channel “STV Notícias” (2014), the daily newspaper “O País” (2005) and the radio station “SFM” (2004).
He had his first professional experience in the 80’s, in the area of education, as a Physical Education teacher, his first contact with the difficult reality of the labour market in Mozambique. When he was just 18 years old, Daniel David decided to move to South Africa where he lived for a year submerged in the harsh reality of working in the mines in the midst of the Apartheid era.
After his experience in the South African mines, he returned to Mozambique and became an administrative assistant at the Public Television Station, rapidly climbing the corporate ladder, until he became Commercial Director and later a member of the Board of Directors.
The year 2000 was a turning point in his life. Betting on the corporate sector, he founded the SOICO Group and organized the first economic conferences in the country, bringing renowned speakers to the young business environment of Mozambique, with only 10 years of market economy. During the decade that followed, the Group consolidated as the national reference of free and unbiased journalism.
In 2014 he launched the Mozambican Economic and Social Forum – MOZEFO, inaugurating a space of intersectoral and inter-generational dialogue that did not exist in the country until then. Through MOZEFO, Daniel David assumed the mission of contributing to accelerated, inclusive and sustainable economic growth for Mozambique, bringing together the private sector, public sector and civil society in a debate platform aimed at identifying challenges and proposing solutions for a more humanized growth.
MOZEFO is just one of several projects Daniel David has launched to induce positive change in Mozambican society. In 2014 he created MozTech, currently Mozambique’s largest technology fair, a space for debate, interaction and exchange of experiences between different sectors of society with the aim of putting technology at the service of the country’s development. He also created the 100 Best SME Award, which since 2012 rewards the best performing small and medium-sized companies in the Mozambican market. His greatest motivation in developing these projects is to raise Mozambique to an international level and leave a legacy for the next generations.
His business career has been recognized with various national and international awards, such as the distinction by the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, at the Afrique Avenir Forum, and the rank of Commander of the Order of Merit awarded by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in 2016.
