David Ling was a director of educational and general publishing companies where he worked for nearly twenty years before establishing David Ling Publishing in 1992. He has been active on management committees in a number of industry organisations including thirteen years as a councillor of the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ), where in 2011 he was awarded Honorary Life Membership for his services. In the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was appointed as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the publishing industry.