David Bruce Payton (born c. 1952)[1] was the Administrator of Tokelau from 17 October 2006 to 2009.
[2] Payton joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1975, where he worked in the aid division assisting Niue.
[1] From 1977-79 he was posted the New Zealand High Commission in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.
[1] He also served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary-General for the International Conference on Population and Development as part of the United Nations Population Fund (from 1992-1994) based in New York.
[5] He retired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) in 2014 at the age of 62, after spending the last few years of his career (2011-2014) working in New York (for the second time) for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on issues related to development in Small Island Developing States (SIDs).