Dave is the Managing Partner and CEO of DARE Strategies LLC, helping clients successfully navigate issues at the nexus of renewable energy and national defense. Before founding DARE, Dave advocated for Federal- and state-level energy and defense policy as Senior Vice President of Cassidy and Associates, and earlier served as Vice President for Federal Business at Apex Clean Energy. Dave proudly helped Apex win a contract to supply wind and solar power at Fort Hood, Texas—a power purchase agreement worth $497 million over 28 years.

Earlier, Dave was the first Executive Director of the Department of Defense Siting Clearinghouse (now the Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse) at the Pentagon, where he built a “one-stop shop” for industry to work with federal, state, and local government agencies to ensure that utility-scale renewable energy and transmission projects were compatible with military operations and installations. Dave developed the process and published the Federal Rule allowing local officials, industry, and military leaders to assess mission compatibility of a wide range of projects. He concluded the first-ever Memorandum of Understanding between DoD and a wind developer, protecting flight paths and radar approaches for flight trainees while simultaneously promoting large-scale economic development; since joining Cassidy and subsequently founding DARE Strategies, he has successfully negotiated 21 similar memoranda for developers and facilitated the permitting of 36 projects comprising 9.4 gigawatts of wind power while protecting critical military capabilities. Dave was recognized by the Obama Administration as a White House Champion of Change: Veterans Advancing Clean Energy and Climate Security, and is using his Federal experience to help develop floating offshore wind projects in California and Hawaii, as well as the SunZia high-voltage transmission project across New Mexico and Arizona.

Dave is a retired Air Force colonel and F-16 pilot who earned two Bronze Stars during Operation Iraqi Freedom and served as commander of Nellis Air Force Base, by many measures the largest fighter base in the country. In 2015, he continued his commitment to public service, running (albeit unsuccessfully) to represent his hometown in the Virginia State Senate. He is a founding director of the mid-Atlantic and Southeast chapters of Environmental Entrepreneurs, a nonpartisan national community of business leaders who promote sound environmental policy to build economic prosperity, and serves on the boards of Chanco on the James (an Episcopal summer camp and retreat center) and Eggleston, Inc. (a non-profit employer of special-needs adults). He is also a five-time Jeopardy! champion.