Elder David S. Baxter was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 1, 2006. He previously served in the Europe West Area Presidency and as the president of the Pacific Area until he had surgery for a brain tumor. He is currently on medical leave from his assignment at Church headquarters in Salt Lake City.
Elder Baxter received a bachelor of science degree in business/economics from the University of Wales in 1976. At the time of his call he was employed as the London Director of International Trade and Investment for the UK Department of Trade and Industry and as a member of the board of a UK government agency providing help to deprived communities. He was previously the group director of operations and strategic relations for British Telecom and the information society director for the UK government, as well as chairman of the board of London’s Small Business Administration. He also served as a board member of a university student grants charity, London First, the Broadband Stakeholder Group, a national health service trust, and the London Council of the Confederation of British Industry. While at the Department of Trade and Industry, he chaired a policy action team on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Social Exclusion Unit.
Since joining the Church in 1968, Elder Baxter has served in numerous callings, including as a full-time missionary in the Scotland Edinburgh Mission, bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, stake president, counselor in a mission presidency, and as an Area Seventy. Elder Baxter is the author of "A Perfect Brightness of Hope," "Peace, Be Still," and "What Good Men Do."
David Steward Baxter was born in Stirling, Scotland, on February 7, 1955. He married Dianne Marie Lewars in February 1979. They are the parents of four children.