Dave Snowden

David John Snowden (born 1954) is a Welsh management consultant and researcher in the field of knowledge management and the application of complexity science. Known for the development of the Cynefin framework, Snowden is the founder and chief scientific officer of The Cynefin Company, a Singapore-based management-consulting firm specialising in complexity and sensemaking. He obtained an MBA in 1985 from Middlesex Polytechnic. The following year Snowden set up IBM Global Services's Knowledge and Differentiation Programme.

While at IBM Snowden researched the importance of storytelling within organisations, particularly in relation to expressing tacit knowledge. In 2000 he became European director of the company's Institute for Knowledge Management, and in 2002 he founded the IBM Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity. During this period he led a team that developed the Cynefin framework, a decision-making tool.

Snowden left IBM in 2004 and a year later founded Cognitive Edge Pte Ltd, a management-consulting firm based in Singapore, now trading as The Cynefin Company.

Works Snowden is the author of several articles and book chapters on the Cynefin framework, the development of narrative as a research method, and the role of complexity in sensemaking.