Enduring growth comes from focus.
Our work strengthens executive conviction, sharpens strategy and accelerates value creation.
Rival Street is an independent advisory platform working at the intersection of strategy, operating model design and leadership.
We advise Boards, CEOs and private equity investors on where to compete, how to win and how to align structure, governance and capability for sustained performance.
Our focus is concentrated in financial services and adjacent regulated sectors - including wealth management, insurance, investments, retirement systems, and professional services - where capital allocation, customer trust, regulation and operating discipline determine long-term value.
We are guided by a simple belief: enduring growth comes from focus.
Time, capital and talent are finite. Focus is not. Leaders create momentum when they concentrate attention and investment on the segments, customers and markets with the strongest growth and value potential - and simplify or reshape those that dilute performance.
At its core, value creation is the result of disciplined strategic choices, clear operating accountability and delivering meaningful outcomes for customers.
Our name reflects our philosophy
Rival speaks to the deliberate choices required to build sustainable competitive advantage - knowing where to compete, how to win and where not to play.
Street reflects pragmatism: commercial judgement, operating discipline and execution under pressure.
Together, Rival Street represents disciplined choices and execution grounded in real-world leadership experience.
Why Rival Street
Operator led, not consultant led
Rival Street was founded by a former CEO with decades of experience in complex, regulated financial services environments. Our perspective is shaped by lived accountability - board scrutiny, regulatory pressure, capital trade-offs and customer expectations - not theory.
Independent and influence based
We work as a trusted extension of the leadership team or investor - strengthening conviction, sharpening decision quality and accelerating alignment without disrupting governance dynamics. Our role is to enhance clarity and execution, not to replace management.
Focused financial services pattern recognition
With decades of experience across wealth, insurance, investments, retirement systems and adjacent regulated markets, we bring sector-specific pattern recognition. We understand where growth compounds, where margin erodes and where operating complexity silently destroys value.
Customer centred value creation
Enduring enterprise value is inseparable from customer value. In financial services especially, sustainable growth depends on trust, relevance and long-term outcomes. We help leaders align strategy and operating models to deliver better customer outcomes - while strengthening capital discipline and performance.
Judgement when it matters most
We support leaders in moments of consequence - scale, integration, transformation, repositioning or exit - when capital is finite, time is constrained and decisions carry long-term impact.
Founder & CEO
David Anderson is the Founder & CEO of Rival Street and a senior advisor to Boards, CEOs, C-suite teams and private equity investors.
Having led complex global institutions, David understands the weight of executive accountability – and how consequential leadership decisions can be. Rival Street was founded to provide independent, experienced counsel when and where it matters most.
David brings four decades of leadership experience across financial services, insurance, investments and retirement systems. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Australian Retirement Trust – one of Australia’s most systemically important financial institutions and a global institutional investor with AU$375B of AUM for 2.4 million members.
Prior to this, David spent 25 years with Mercer and Marsh McLennan, including roles as Global Chief Commercial Officer and President, International, with P&L accountability across 42 countries and 175 cities.
He has lived in and worked from Sydney, New York, London and Brisbane, overseeing businesses across six continents. David’s experience includes entering nine new countries, integrating an acquisition across 22 countries, expanding into 43 high-growth cities and leading technology-enabled service transformation at global scale.
David has served as a board director in the highly regulated markets of the UK, China, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, including a publicly listed company board for more than five years.
David's career has been defined by disciplined growth, capital allocation judgement, colleague inspiration, customer centricity and operating model transformation across multinational enterprises.
Why we do this
Leadership can be lonely at the top. There are few places where a Board Chair, CEO or PE GP can test their toughest calls with someone who has sat in their seat – experienced the ambiguity, pressure and accountability first-hand. Rival Street exists because senior leaders need an objective companion in judgment: someone who combines deep operational experience with the independence to challenge, clarify and accelerate decision impact.
Partnering and collaborating for better
David's drive for growth and excellence is matched by his enormous heart for investing in people. David builds high-performing teams who embrace a growth mindset and chase positive impact, all while having some fun along the way.
Kristy
International Chief of Staff,
United States
One of the most influential managers and mentors in my work career. I learned so much from David's multi-disciplinary approach in creating something great for partners and members.
Phil
Digitech Platform Founder,
United Kingdom
David believes in leading from the front, his passion and drive mean that he gets things done, and inspires the people that work with him.
Adam
Head of Investments,
New Zealand
David is an inspirational leader with the ability to see the big picture and the detail in all that he does. He has the ability to draw his team towards organisational goals effortlessly.
Sue
People & Culture Leader,
Australia