Umbreen David Public Page

08/05/2026

Setting off for a very special day. Still feels quite surreal, but I’m going to take it all in and enjoy every moment.

27/04/2026

Some relationships don’t come from transactions, they’re built and nurtured over time.

Thank you Heeral Shah for the invitation to the Royal Albert Hall to see AR Rahman & Rushil Ranjan last week. It was a lovely evening and, to be honest, the performance itself was quite something, groundbreaking in its musical brilliance and vocal talent.

More than that, it was a reminder that the best banking relationships aren’t just about deals. They’re built in moments like this, where you have the space to connect, understand how each other thinks, and see what might be possible over time.

I’m looking forward to continuing the conversation with HSBC and exploring where we can collaborate across shared interests.

It was also a pleasure to meet Shalini Khemka CBE , I’m looking forward to picking up our conversation again soon, and an unexpected treat to run into Rita Chowdhry.

Sometimes these evenings end up meaning more than you expect.

20/04/2026

I never expected this...
..Thirty years in health and social care was never about recognition. It has always been about service. About doing good work, doing it properly, and finding a way to sustain it. And, I hope, quietly showing that disabled leadership brings strength, insight and value to business.

For me, the focus has always been simple; build something good, serve residents well, support your team, and keep striving to do better.

To receive an invitation to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party feels very special, and quite surreal if I’m honest. This invitation means a great deal. It feels like recognition not just of time served, but of sustained commitment to vulnerable communities, to doing things with care and integrity, and to leading in a way that may not always be easy, but always feels right.

To everyone who has been part of this 30-year journey; those we care for and support, our teams, community, family and friends, thank you. This is something I share with all of you.

And of course, there is now one very important question; fascinator or no fascinator?

The work continues. Through Iden Manor and Meadowview Care & Living, we are continuing to build with heart, and to challenge expectations of what care can and should be.

Keep your eyes peeled for pictures from the day.

09/04/2026

This week, Gatwick Audiology Ltd & Phonak invited me to lunch at Denbies Wine Estate to talk about hearing, technology, and access.

The venue was busy with poor acoustics. Of course my heart sank. But that was precisely the point. A beautiful venue but a challenging environment for those with hearing loss to put the Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio to the test.

Hearing loss is exhausting. It’s also deeply excluding. Conversations demand extra effort that others never need to think about. Noisy environments become places you try to avoid rather than navigate. You’re left out of group dynamics, workplace meetings, family gatherings. The effort of trying to participate often outweighs the connection itself. It’s not just tiring. It’s isolating.

The Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio claims to filters speech clarity from noise so the burden shifts away from you. It certainly appears to deliver - I noticed it immediately at that lunch, in the very environment designed to be challenging. No straining, no apology, no repeating, no repeating again because you still didn’t catch it. Just the simple pleasure of holding a conversation from a distance. That’s the difference.

We also had the chance to trial the Roger wireless microphone which closes the distance gap even more. One couple trialling it together discovered with great mirth they could actually hear each other clearly.
The delight and animation in those conversations was uplifting, the kind of joy that comes when technology suddenly opens a door that was locked before. We weren’t testing a product. We were discovering what is possible.

This is why AI matters in this context: not as hype, but as a tool that removes real barriers. When technology meets genuine human need, that’s the true gift of AI.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with both over the next couple of weeks, putting them through their paces in daily life, and offering more detailed feedback on what actually changes for someone navigating the business world and home life with hearing loss.

Sincere thanks to Prince P Punnoose, your fabulous team and Richard Bance for the opportunity to be part of this conversation and for such generous hosting.

29/03/2026

£300,000 in cash prizes. £1.85 million donated to disabled entrepreneurs since 2007. The 18th Stelios Awards For UK Disabled Entrepreneurs are now live.

I was privileged to win last year. Now Sir Stelios and Leonard Cheshire are opening the doors again, offering disabled entrepreneurs real prize money and real recognition.

Disabled entrepreneurs create thriving businesses. We solve problems. We lead. We should be visible.

If you own 50%+ of a UK company with £200k+ turnover and are disabled, this is your opportunity to accelerate your business.

Close date: 30 April 2026.

Applications: https://stelios.foundation/disabled-entrepreneurs-w-leonard-cheshire/stelios-awards-for-uk-disabled-entrepreneurs-2026-now-open-for-applications/

I lift as I climb. And I’m rooting for you to do the same. Please share with your network

Stelios Philanthropic Foundation

25/03/2026

A year ago I wouldn’t have believed I belonged in this room.
Not because I wasn’t building something purposeful. That hadn’t changed. Because I’d never stopped to consider that what I was building counted in a room like this.

Last night I attended the EY Entrepreneur of the Year nominee event as a nominee. A room of founders from construction, education, tech, renewables, consulting, finance, customer service and social care amongst others.

Different sectors. Different scales. One shared challenge — how do you grow, lead and inspire without losing what made you worth growing in the first place?
What pleasantly surprised me was the willingness to share, to lift others, to be genuinely curious about each other’s journeys.
That’s the EY entrepreneurial community. A global network that exists to ask hard questions and answer them together.
I didn’t change my business to earn my place in that room.
I changed my assumption about who these rooms are for.
I came to listen and learn. I left knowing this journey is going to change me as much as I hope to contribute to it.

15/03/2026

Mother’s Day arrives each year wrapped in familiar imagery. Flowers. Cards. Restaurant bookings. Carefully worded tributes to love, sacrifice and gratitude. It is a polished version of motherhood, easy to market and easy to recognise. But real motherhood has never been so tidy. I've captured what it means to me in this article 👇 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/quiet-legacy-mothers-umbreen-david-award-winning-entrepreneur--omg6e In the meantime; wishing all mothers and mother figures a Happy Mother’s Day.

08/03/2026

Celebrating the women who shaped me and helped make the path a little easier for those who come next.

International Women’s Day.

This year the UN theme is:

🎯Rights
🎯Justice
🎯Action
♥️For ALL Women and Girls.

Three words that sound simple, until you stop and think about how many women are still waiting for even one of them.

For some women the barriers are obvious. For others they sit much closer to home, in expectations about silence, endurance, and knowing your place.

Many of us understand that reality more than we might ever care to admit.

But something changes when women decide they will no longer stay silent. When they choose to emerge from what tried to contain them.

Rights matter.
Justice matters.
But ✨ action ✨ is what moves things forward for the women and girls who come next.

Today I’m thinking about the women who shaped me, my mother, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, teachers, friends and mentors.

Women who carried far more than anyone ever saw, and still made things a little easier for their daughters and for others.

And because of them, we try to do the same.

Happy International Women’s Day.

04/03/2026

04/03/2026

Access to healthcare is often discussed as if the main challenges are funding or waiting lists.

But for many disabled women, the first barrier is far more basic.

Can you physically access the service in the first place?

Today I attended Women’s Health in Focus, hosted by Muscular Dystrophy UK in partnership with HB Reavis.
Thank you to the organisers and panelists for creating such an open, sometimes uncomfortable and important conversation.

Several themes kept surfacing throughout the day.

✨Barriers still exist at every stage of care.
From inaccessible examination rooms to appointment structures that don’t accommodate mobility needs. These are not minor inconveniences. They determine whether someone receives care at all.

✨ Design matters far more than we acknowledge.
Healthcare environments are often built around a “default patient” who doesn’t reflect the diversity of people using them. When design is shaped by lived experience, services become safer, more inclusive and ultimately more effective.

✨ Feeling unheard has a real mental health impact.
Many women spoke about the exhaustion of repeatedly explaining their condition or advocating for basic adjustments. Being listened to should not be something patients have to fight for.

✨ Communication across the multidisciplinary team is critical.
For complex conditions, fragmented care creates risk. Joined up thinking between clinicians matters.

✨ One clinical point that stood out was the importance of cardiac monitoring for women who are carriers of dystrophinopathies (linked to Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy). Carriers can develop cardiomyopathy, yet awareness and routine screening still appear inconsistent in practice.

The discussion kept returning to one central idea.

✨✨Autonomy ✨✨

The ability for disabled women to access healthcare independently, safely and without unnecessary barriers.

Early intervention in healthcare is vital. But early intervention only works if people are able to access the system in the first place.

Design plays a huge role here. When healthcare services are shaped using lived experience, they become more responsive, more inclusive and better able to support the people they serve.

There is still much to do, particularly in challenging outdated perceptions around disabled women’s sexual health & autonomy.

A special thanks to Molly Hyslop for the invite

03/03/2026

I’ve written a thought-leadership piece for the February issue of Caring Times magazine, exploring what leadership looks like when it starts with culture.

“Lessons in Leadership: the conversation starts somewhere else entirely; with culture, curiosity and the courage to do things differently.”

For me, leadership has never started with policies or process. It starts with the culture you create, the everyday moments that shape how people feel at work, how they support one another and how they show up for those in their care.

My leadership philosophy, “I lift as I climb,” has become the cultural backbone of our organisation. It’s a mindset that puts empathy at the centre of management, not as an afterthought, but as a practical strategy.
If you’re leading in social care (or anywhere, really), I hope the article sparks reflection on the kind of culture you’re building and the kind of leader you want to be.

You can read it here online https://caring-times.co.uk/magazine/

Feel free to reach out if you’d like to discuss with me.