David Daoud
Principal Analyst / PresidentAbout David
David Daoud is a seasoned analyst and strategic advisor with nearly three decades of experience at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and enterprise governance. He is the Founder and President of Compliance Standards LLC, where he leads advisory and research work focused on circular IT strategies, the IT asset disposition (ITAD) sector, sustainable tech, ISMS, compliance and adjacent areas such as ESG compliance, vendor risk, and sustainable infrastructure.
David began his research career in 1996, specializing in mainstream IT hardware markets, and by 2003, had become the first analyst to systematically study the emerging challenges and opportunities in IT hardware disposition. While at IDC, he launched the GRADE Certification program — a vendor evaluation framework mentioned by companies like Dell, HP, IBM Global Asset Recovery Services and Unisys — and has since remained a trusted industry voice for clients seeking to understand the evolving lifecycle of enterprise IT assets.
Today, David provides strategic foresight and hands-on consulting to companies operating across multiple technology sectors.
His areas of expertise include:
Market and regulatory analysis for ITADs, OEMs, and data center operators
Strategic planning around sustainability, innovation, and risk mitigation
Enterprise procurement advisory with a focus on ISMS compliance, cybersecurity, and ESG-aligned vendor audits
AI’s emerging role in traceability, refurbishment, decommissioning, and responsible IT management
As an independent advisor, David is frequently called on to brief and consult with clients across Silicon Valley, New York, Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan Singapore, North America and elsewhere. He works closely with both operational leaders and investment teams to help anticipate market shifts, align roadmaps with geopolitical and sustainability risks, and build future-proof frameworks for growth and compliance.
David is also a contributor to industry publications including Resource Recycling and E-Scrap News, where he explores the intersection of circularity, regulation, and innovation in IT.
He is currently authoring a new book titled Sustainable IT in the Age of AI: How Companies Can Lead on Responsible IT Use, to be published by De Gruyter in 2026. The book will address how artificial intelligence is reshaping every stage of the IT lifecycle — from procurement and optimization to decommissioning and ESG reporting — and will feature case studies from across the IT, ITAM and ITAD ecosystems.
Prior to founding Compliance Standards, David worked as a Research Analyst for IDG/Computerworld, a Data Analyst at Harvard University, and taught computer science and English as an Adjunct Faculty member in Massachusetts.
He studied economics at Algiers University and Suffolk University in Boston, and is certified in ESG Investing from the Wharton School of Business.
Connect with David:
📞 +1 754-229-0095
💬 WhatsApp: +1 508-981-6937
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Some of David's Recent Work
Client Note: HPE Downgrade Highlights Demand Fragility and Uneven AI Monetization
In our latest client note, we connect data from HPE’s downgrade, Morgan Stanley’s sector-wide hardware warning, and HPE’s own earnings disclosures to five specific operational implications for End-Of-Life service providers, including why linear volume planning is now a liability, where residual value assumptions need to be revised downward, and what phased decommissioning means for how services are structured going forward.
Compliance: Navigating the Post-Basel ITAD Compliance Landscape in 2026
As of Q1 2026, the operating environment that the global ITAD industry was built around has been evolving and materially changing. The Basel Convention’s 2025 amendments have subjected virtually all transboundary e-waste movements to Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedures, eliminating the permissive classifications that allowed untested equipment to cross borders with minimal scrutiny. Malaysia, until recently the principal global destination for imported e-waste, has imposed an absolute prohibition on all e-waste imports, with the ban was formally gazetted into law on April 1, 2026, removing a critical outlet from the global processing chain overnight. And for enterprises subject to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, gaps in downstream asset-disposition tracking have now become an audit exposure.
This report analyzes what these developments mean for ITAD operators, enterprise asset managers, and logistics providers, and sets out the contractual, operational, and reporting steps required to remain compliant, auditable, and insurable in this new environment.
ITAD M&A Outlook: Lessons from the MSP Consolidation Wave and Three Scenarios for the ITAD Market
This report is an investor-grade analysis of how the IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) market is likely to consolidate over the next five to seven years, using the Managed Service Provider (MSP) consolidation cycle as a model and cautionary tale. It first reconstructs how MSPs went from a fragmented, owner‑operator landscape in 2018 to a market dominated by a handful of scaled platforms, and then maps those lessons onto today’s ITAD sector, which now shows similar fragmentation, secular growth, and rising private equity interest.
For prospective ITAD investors, strategics, and boards, the report explains ITAD’s core demand drivers, segments the competitive landscape into four tiers, and highlights ITAD’s dual role as both a compliance service and a critical materials feedstock source. It then details recent M&A activity from 2023–2026 and current valuation dynamics, before laying out three structured consolidation scenarios; a disciplined PE rollup, a fragmented stall, and a strategic acquirer takeover; with implications for entry timing, platform selection, value creation levers, and risk signals to monitor
Future Tech: AI Vision Is Moving From Lab to Line in E‑Waste Sorting
AI‑driven camera sorting is moving from lab demos into practical plant‑floor tools for ITAD and electronics recyclers. Early systems like Apple’s A.R.I.S. show that low‑cost vision models running on commodity hardware can drive pneumatic sorters at line speed and deliver high‑purity metal and PCB streams, suggesting that facilities which start piloting these techniques now will gain a structural edge on recovery, cost, and specification compliance over the next three to five years.