David Paterson was born on 21 June 1944 to Charles Eric Paterson and Joan Margaret Mary Constable Maxwell Stuart in Honington, Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, England. He was educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire and studied Medicine at Oriel College, Oxford where he obtained his MA (Hons) in Animal Physiology. He was articled to Price Waterhouse in London and became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1973.

David worked for Samuel Montagu in London as a Corporate Finance executive and in 1976 joined John Swire and Sons in Hong Kong. In the latter company he held a number of senior executive positions before founding HSBC Private Equity Management Limited in which he owned 25% in 1987. HPEM became the largest private equity manager in South East Asia with over USD1,100 million under management, the majority of which came from US corporate and public pension funds.

David sold his shareholding in HPEM to HSBC in February 1998 and has since been retired. David has been a director of several publicly listed companies in Hong Kong, South Korea, London and Canada. He is currently a director of a Canadian company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange - involved in gold exploration, of Chepstow Capital Advisors Limited and of Interactyx Limited, a UK company involved in digital learning systems.

In 2007, David was appointed an Honorary Professor of The China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing.