Dave Reece co-founded School of Thought with Julie Eley of School in 2019. Created to promote career opportunities in the automotive industry for young people looking for an exciting career. Dave started in the automotive industry in 1967 in Warwick as a trainee mechanic at what was then a BLMC Dealer. This led to being offered a four-year indentured apprenticeship.

Having worked in most dealership departments and also in motor factors, he started his own business in Coventry, working as a technician for a Jaguar, Land Rover and Triumph dealer, and was part of a team that set up what was probably the first fleet preparation and defleet centre in Coventry.

Dave worked in several roles in vehicle sales and eventually started with Ford Motor Company as part of their Ford Accident Repair Centre Programme, eventually managing the programme for many years. This gave Dave the opportunity to travel all over the world to places such as South Korea, India, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Aruba.

He worked for what is possibly the largest accident management company, Vizion, but in January 2023 turned his attention full time to School of Thought.

School of Thought has connected with hundreds of thousands of young people and attended hundreds of careers events at schools and colleges and this year created the first National Automotive Careers Week dedicated to promoting careers in the industry.