David W. Nelms (born 1961) is an American businessman and the former CEO of

Discover Financial Discover Financial Services, Inc. was an American financial services company best known for its Discover Card. Founded in 1985, the company offered a wide range of banking and payment services, including checking and savings accounts, persona ...

Biography

David Nelms grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida and graduated from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

with a degree in mechanical engineering. Nelms went on to study at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

and graduated with his MBA in 1987. David Nelms was the Chief Executive Officer of

from 2004 – September 30, 2018. Nelms was named chairman of the board in 2009 and as of October 1, 2018, was the Executive Chair of the board of directors. He joined Discover as president and COO in 1998. From 1991-1998, Nelms served as an executive for

MBNA MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006. History The former Maryland National ...

. From 1990 to 1991, he worked for Progressive Insurance as a senior product manager. From 1986 to 1990, he was a management consultant at Bain & Company. Before attending Harvard Business School, Nelms was an assembly line supervisor at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

. Nelms served on the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as chair of the board of directors from 2018 until 2020. As of 2022, he serves as the non-executive chair of the board of directors of the CDW Corporation. Nelms and his wife, Daryl Nelms, married in 1981. They have three sons.

References

External links

Official profile on Forbes.com
University of Florida alumni Harvard Business School alumni Living people 1960 births 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1960s-stub