For over 30 years the name David Wainwright has been synonymous with the development of equal opportunities in the UK employment scene. David's commitment to the principles of equality combined with his knowledge of employment law and practice and his understanding of how organisations work and what makes people change made for a unique and invaluable contribution. His tragically early death in 1987 left a gap that was widely regarded as unfillable. Nevertheless the Wainwright Trust was set up in the hope of continuing the kind of work which David pioneered and for which the need grows daily.

David's first publication in this area was on race and employment, produced for the Institute of Personnel Management (1969). There then followed almost two decades of articles, reports, booklets and books, all without exception recognised as authoritative and ahead of their time. Particularly worthy of mention are the book 'Discrimination in Employment' (1979), the two Runnymede reports 'Learning from Uncle Sam' (1980) and 'Through the Bureaucratic Maze' (1983) and the guide to the workings of the equal value regulations, 'Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value', co-authored with Anthony Lester QC, (1984).

In 1982 David won a German Marshall scholarship to study comparable worth in the USA and subsequently became acknowledged as the UK expert on equal pay for work of equal value. He was consulted extensively on this subject by employers, unions, the media and the Equal Opportunities Commission itself and he was the 'expert witness' in several cases. He spoke at many CBI and IPM conferences, among others, and was visiting lecturer on equality in employment to various universities. The IPM invited him into Fellowship in 1987 and he became a member of that Institute's Standing Committee on Equal Opportunities. For several years he was consultant on employment and training issues for the Runnymede Trust, and he was a founder and active member of the Equal Pay and Opportunity Campaign (EPOC).

Although best known for his equal opportunity work, David was an all-round personnel and training professional. He spent his early career in personnel management with Pottertons, United Biscuits and later BP Chemicals, and then moved into consultancy work before establishing his own practice in 1979. As a consultant he worked with many major employers in the public and private sectors, as well as with trade unions and voluntary organisations. Equal opportunity work became a specialism, but he was equally at the forefront of developments in changing patterns of work, 'normative analysis' (now better known as organisational 'culture') and participative approaches to managing change. He was also UK agent for LIFO, one of the more highly regarded systems for analysing management style, and wrote and provided consultancy on this subject.

David's efforts towards the elimination of race and sex discrimination in employment were characterised by two attributes: his sincerity and his practicality. He was one of the few people with a real sensitivity to discrimination issues who also understood organisational change and how to help management to bring that about. His greatest talent was for finding realistic, practical solutions to problems without sacrificing principles.