Mr Simmonds was a senior audit partner with Ernst & Young. David led the Capital Markets desk in Australia with responsibility for overseeing or reviewing all Australian cross border fundraisings. As an audit partner, David was involved in several high-profile businesses including Ramsay Health Care Ltd, John Fairfax Holdings and Commonwealth Bank of Australia and also was audit partner for the Australian operations of the leading US technology companies Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems and Oracle. David was a member of the Board and chaired the Audit, Risk and Finance Committee of MS Research Australia, the largest national not-for-profit body dedicated to funding and coordinating multiple sclerosis research in Australia.