David Wishart became interested in malt whisky when, as a mathematics undergraduate at St Andrews, he was first introduced to cask-strength Laphroaig by his father.

Following his father into the Scottish Office, David qualified as a Chartered Statistician and served as Director of Statistics. He gained a PhD in classification methodology at the University of St Andrews, where he was an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Management from 1996 until 2015.

David's research field is Marketing. He chose the Scotch Whisky Industry for specific study because it is a vital Scottish industry having the largest exports by value (excluding oil), is supported by a large and diverse workforce, and an icon of Scotland throughout the world.

He is invited to give whisky talks and tastings to postgraduates and at international conferences.