J. David Nelson has been the Chief Operating Officer of The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) since January, 2001. He is responsible for leading NFTE in the implementation of its strategic plan finalized by a team from the noted international consulting firm of McKinsey & Co., under a grant from the Goldman Sachs Foundation. The goal of the grant is to "bring NFTE up to scale," fostering growth of its programs in the U.S. and throughout the world. For his work at NFTE, Dave was named a 2006 Purpose Prize Fellow, one of 70 Americans whose achievements as a social innovator in an “encore” career were recognized.

Dave enjoyed a 33 year intrapreneurial career at IBM, over half of those as an executive and over 20 of those with the financial services industries. From 1996 through 1998, Dave was General Manager for the Banking, Finance, Securities and Insurance Industries for IBM Greater China. Located in Beijing, he was responsible for developing and expanding IBM's business with customers in the above industries in China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Prior to moving to China, he was Senior Director for Wholesale Banking and Securities Industries for IBM Global Services. His responsibilities included complex systems integration and outsourcing projects. Earlier, he was responsible for worldwide strategy and the development of software and services offerings for wholesale banking, capital markets, and related financial lines of business. He initiated and fostered numerous joint development projects with customers and business partners worldwide. He led merger and acquisition efforts with multiple firms. Prior to his retirement in October 1999, he led the marketing efforts for IBM’s global financial markets industry and the global finance sector.

Dave was graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in history and from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with an MBA in marketing. He has lectured at graduate business schools such as Wharton, Kellogg, Harvard, Yale, Renmin (Beijing), North Carolina and Colorado. He has attended advanced education programs conducted by The Brookings Institution and Harvard University.