David R. Brousell is an accomplished publishing and research executive with nearly 40 years of experience building loyal audiences through prestigious web and print publications, targeted research, and thought-leadership events and conferences.

A professional journalist since 1975, Brousell currently serves as Vice President and Executive Director of the Manufacturing Leadership Council (MLC), a division of The National Association of Manufacturers. He oversees all content for MLC’s website, the Manufacturing Leadership Summit, the Manufacturing Leadership Journal, the Manufacturing Leadership Council, and the ML Awards program.

The Manufacturing Leadership Council’s vision is to create and inspire a global community of manufacturing executives who believe in the proposition that manufacturing is the fundamental driver of economic and social prosperity, and that its growth will lead to a better future and a higher standard of living for all people. The Council’s mission to enable manufacturing executives to achieve transformational growth for themselves, their companies, and for the industry at large through enlightened leadership.

Brousell leads a team of experienced technology and manufacturing professionals that provides thought-leadership content on a member-defined set of “Critical Issues” facing manufacturing, virtual meetings and discussions on those issues, and lives conferences and plant tours. The “Critical Issues” are part of the Council’s focus on Manufacturing 4.0, the next wave of industrial progress based on the Internet.

In his nearly four-decade career, Brousell has served in numerous leadership positions in companies large and small. In the early 1990s, he served as Editor-in-Chief of Datamation Magazine, which was the standard of excellence in the IT magazine field for many years. In the mid to late 1990s, he served as Vice President and Editorial Director at Sentry Publishing Co., in charge of that firm’s Software Magazine, Client-Server Computing Magazine and Sentry Market Research publications. In 1997, he became Vice President of Strategy at Softbank Comdex, the organizer of the huge Comdex technology trade show and conference.

In 1998, Brousell was named Editor-in-Chief of Managing Automation Magazine, part of Thomas Publishing Co. of New York. He later became Vice President & Editorial Director of Managing Automation Media, where he co-founded the Manufacturing Leadership Council in 2008.