Dave Stevinson

CEO, QBS Software

What has been your business highlight of 2022?

We finally achieving our B Corp status in August 2022.

If you were ruler of your own country, what law would you introduce first?

I would look at company law and replace the shareholder primacy clause to ensure that all businesses exist to serve each of their stakeholders. This is something I have been incredibly passionate about at QBS.

Which channel or tech leader (outside of your own company) has impressed you most in 2022?

It has been a bit of a tough year for traditional tech. Although I must say that the fellow from WeWork, Adam Neuman, has impressed me raising $350m for a pre-seed company - valuing Flow at more than a billion. What could possibly go wrong?

If you had a warning label, what would it say?

"Fantastically loyal."

What was your first job?

Excluding various part time jobs that I held while at school and university, I started working in the IT channel for a company manufacturing computer displays in the Far East called CTX.

What was the last book you read, and was it any good?

It was called It's Not The How or The What But The Who. I was given it by the author, Claudio Fernandez-Araoz and as such I am going to award it 10/10 for value.

What's the most important lesson you've learned from another business leader or mentor?

Without a doubt it is the message I was taught in business school: "Make a decent profit decently."

Who would play you in a movie of your life?

I am not sure that it would be such an interesting movie, or a long list of applicants. Yet I always liked Tim Roth as an actor.