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

Discover Financial Discover Financial Services is an American financial services company that owns and operates Discover Bank, which offers checking and savings accounts, personal loans, home equity loans, student loans and credit cards. It also owns and ope ...

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 land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

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

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

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 Bain & Company is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and non-profit organizations. One of the Big Three management consultancies, Bain & Company was fou ...

. Before attending Harvard Business School, Nelms was an assembly line supervisor at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

. 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 CDW Corporation, headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois, is a provider of technology products and services for business, government and education. The company has a secondary division known as ''CDW-G'', devoted solely to United States governm ...

. 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