STORY ANGLES & TALKING POINTS
The Accidental Captain
An inspiring and personal journey of how 17 years across five industries shaped a powerful new philosophy for leading in uncertain times. Perfect for audiences needing a fresh perspective on leadership and personal reinvention.
Beyond Hustle Culture
An empathetic and powerful talk on the real causes of burnout. Dave provides practical strategies for building personal and team resilience, fostering psychological safety, and creating a culture of purpose and connection
Anchoring Your Team When Strategy Isn't Enough
Why do so many great strategies fail? This talk explores the critical importance of values (The Beacon) as the ultimate anchor for team alignment, motivation, and performance in a turbulent market.
Beacon. Wayfinder. Seafarer
A visual, practical framework for leadership in stormy conditions. What do people look for in leaders, especially in a world where everything is uncertain?
Burnout & the Leadership Reckoning
Traditional styles of leadership are not only losing relevance, but they are also the single biggest reason for the downfall of most organisations.
From Book to Movement
Dave's mission is to empower leadership that can propel humanity into the future. Building a leadership model that scales beyond the page.
FOUNDER | CREATOR OF THE MISSING BENCHMARK | KEYNOTE | HUMAN-CENTERED LEADERSHIP ADVOCATE
DAVE CHAUHAN
Through Purple Spark, Dave works with executives, leadership teams, and organizations to identify and reduce Human Debt—the invisible cost created when systems extract more from people and the planet than they can sustainably give. His work introduces leaders to The Law of Net Impact, helping them understand that every leadership decision creates two outcomes: the visible result and the hidden human and environmental cost required to produce it.
To make The Missing Benchmark measurable, Purple Spark is developing a proprietary Shadow Ledger system—an enterprise architecture designed to sit alongside traditional dashboards and performance metrics. Scheduled to launch in its Gen 0 phase in early-to-mid next year, the Shadow Ledger will help organizations quantify Human Debt in real time, making visible what has historically remained hidden. This gives leaders a practical mechanism to measure sustainability, accountability, and long-term organizational health—not just output.
Today, Dave is leading a movement that is redefining leadership for a new era. He helps organizations move beyond short-term extraction and build systems capable of sustaining both performance and the people who create it. His mission is simple but transformative: make The Missing Benchmark visible so leaders can build organizations that thrive without silently exhausting their people.
Dave Chauhan is a visionary author, speaker, systems thinker, and creator of the Nautical Leadership™ framework—a modern leadership model designed for a world where certainty is gone and adaptability has become the defining leadership skill. His work challenges one of the most dangerous assumptions in modern business: that strong performance automatically means a healthy organization. Through his signature concept, The Missing Benchmark, Dave helps leaders uncover the hidden human cost buried beneath traditional measures of success.
For nearly two decades, Dave led complex projects across factory floors, construction sites, major infrastructure developments, and high-performance organizations including Cushman & Wakefield, Woodward Inc., Melbourne Airport, Monash University, Z Fit Studios, and Amicus. In environments where pressure was constant and outcomes mattered, he witnessed a pattern few leaders were measuring. Organizations celebrated revenue, efficiency, productivity, and growth—but rarely examined what those results were costing the people responsible for producing them.
The defining insight behind Dave’s work emerged during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading teams through disruption, change, and operational complexity reinforced a simple truth: the strongest leaders are not those with perfect plans. They are skilled navigators who can remain anchored in purpose while adapting to changing conditions. Those experiences became the foundation for Nautical Leadership™, a framework that equips leaders to navigate complexity with courage, clarity, accountability, and humanity.
ABOUT DAVE CHAUHAN
Dave Chauhan is a leadership strategist, author, and speaker known for helping leaders find clarity and composure in times of change. Over 17 years across industries including manufacturing, infrastructure, technology, and design, he led large teams through disruption and discovered a powerful truth, traditional leadership models built on control and certainty no longer work.
That realisation inspired Nautical Leadership, a values-driven framework that redefines leadership as navigation, not command. It centres on three timeless anchors: The Beacon, The Wayfinder, and The Seafarer.
In his debut book, Captain, Set Sail: A Nautical Guide to Leadership in an Uncharted World, Dave shares this model as a compass for modern leaders seeking to move beyond burnout and bureaucracy toward meaning, connection, and purposeful direction.
Blending the rigour of strategy with the empathy of storytelling, Dave’s approach offers a calm, credible alternative to hustle-driven leadership, one grounded in humanity, resilience, and courage.
A Nautical Guide to Leadership in an Uncharted World
Publication Details
Title: Captain, Set Sail: A Nautical Guide to Leadership in an Uncharted World
Author: Dave Chauhan
Publication Date: 10 September 2025
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audible (Coming Soon)
ISBNs: 978-1764095723 | 978-1764095716 | 978-1764095709
Length: 391 pages | Language: English
Weight: 1.15–1.52 lbs | Dimensions: 6.24 × 1.07 × 9.24 in
ABOUT THE BOOK
DAVE CHAUHAN
CAPTAIN, SET SAIL
In an era defined by constant change, Captain, Set Sail reframes leadership as a voyage, one guided by values, adaptability, and courage.
At its heart are three archetypes:
The Beacon
Leads with purpose and clarity.
Adapts with awareness and agility.
Acts with courage and conviction.
The Wayfinder
The Seafarer
Each chapter blends storytelling with reflection and practical tools to help leaders navigate uncertainty, build trust, and lead with calm confidence.
This isn’t a “how-to” manual, it’s a framework for those ready to lead with purpose when the map runs out.
MEDIA RESOURCES
Dave Chauhan’s Downloadable Assets
START THE CONVERSATION
For interviews, features, podcasts or speaking opportunities, Dave is available for thoughtful and meaningful media conversations.
Media Enquiries
Contact: Helena Tan, UNTMD Media
Email: helena@untmd.com
Phone: +61 451 786 859
© 2026. Dave Chauhan. All rights reserved.
LINKS
In the spirit of learning from timeless wisdom, I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we gather, work, and write. I live and work on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. I pay my deepest respects to their Elders—past, present, and emerging—and recognise their enduring connection to country, which continues to teach us about resilience, community, and navigating with purpose.
DAVE CHAUHAN, MBA | PMP® | AUTHOR OF CAPTAIN, SET SAIL