Dave was born in Durban and attended Northlands Boys High School in Durban from 1965 to 1969. He is married with two sons. Hobbies included playing football in Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg and then coaching.

He joined the Transnet Group on 19 January 1970 and served 27 years with them before taking a voluntary retrenchment package in 1997. During this time he worked in the Port of Durban both in the conventional and container divisions. He also spent many years in the commercial division of Spoornet, both in Durban and Pretoria, and completed his career with this Group at their Freight Operating division Fast Forward.

On 1 June 1997 he joined a large marine insurance organisation in Durban where he worked in their risk profiling section. Two years later on 1 June 1999 he joined Eikos Risk Applications (Pty) Ltd.