David Apel is an American perfumer whose career began in 1980 in the fragrance laboratories at Givaudan. He came to composition from the technical side of the craft, working in the raw-materials and gas-chromatography labs before training as a perfumer and taking on his first creative brief in 1988.

After a stretch as a fine-fragrance perfumer in Paris in the mid-1990s and a period building out fine-fragrance creation for Fragrance Resources in New York, he joined Symrise, where he now serves as a Vice President and Senior Perfumer. Over four decades he has worked fluently across mass-market and luxury briefs.

His portfolio includes some of the most recognizable launches of the 2000s, among them Tom Ford's Black Orchid, several Tom Ford Private Blends, Calvin Klein Escape for Men, Jo Malone White Jasmine & Mint, and multiple Bond No. 9 New York scents, alongside contemporary niche work such as Mind Games Kingside.