Born in Vancouver, David Black is well known for his focus on community and building a company with the same values.

After completing Grade 13 in Ontario, his family moved back to BC where David received an Engineering degree at UBC. In the early 1970s he worked for Crown Life Insurance Company and Torstar Corp. In 1975, when he was 29 years old, he moved to Williams Lake, British Columbia to purchase a small newspaper from his father. Four years later, he purchased his second paper.
As President and owner of Black Press Ltd., the largest private newspaper publisher in Canada, David owns over 150 newspapers and 17 regional web press operations. The company has grown tremendously over the past 30 years, with operations in British Columbia, Alberta, Washington State, Hawaii and Ohio, employing approximately 3000 people.

David has worked extensively for volunteer organizations within his communities. He has been President of his Rotary Club, and chaired the Northern British Columbia Winter Games. From 1987 to 1989 he chaired the Victoria team that won the rights to the 1994 Commonwealth Games for Victoria and Canada. He served as the founding Chairman of the Board of Advisors for the University of Victoria Faculty of Business and as a Director of Pacific Sport, a trust which manages the $15 million sport training fund generated by the Commonwealth Games.

Within his industry, David has served as President of the British Columbia and Yukon Community Newspaper Association, as a Director of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and as a Governor of the Canadian Newspaper Association.

Most recently, he served as the Chair of the BC Progress Board and was also appointed to the BC Competition Council. In 2008 he established the Black Press Business Scholarships, which are awarded annually to high school students entering the Faculty of Business at the University of Victoria. David’s vision is to support students to be entrepreneurs in their hometown communities.

He and his late wife, Annabeth, have four children, Alan, Fraser, Morgan and Catherine, and two grandchildren.