Richard has experience, relationships and impact across sectors –having been engaged by some of the world’s largest Commercial Organisations, as a trustee and advisor to Charities, and working with a range of Arts Organisations over many years.Culture sector clients, making up a half of his work include; Arts Council England (Organisation Development, Performing Arts, Audience Engagement and Literature departments at Head Office, Resource Development and Audience Engagement in London office) Crafts Council, British Council, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Clore Leadership and 28 of London’s Local Authorities (including Camden, Southwark and Richmond in 2013). This work ranges from large-scale change projects (the West Yorkshire Playhouse project is a two year transformation project working intimately with the Leadership team) to shorter Strategy development or Employee engagement initiatives.Other not for profit clients include LOCOG 2012, Queen Mary, University of London, and The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. These projects also range from Strategic Change Management advice to visioning, team development and organisational transformation.
Commercial clients include Deutsche Post, (where Richard helped set up and train the organisations Global Change Management function, based in Brussels and Bonn and working in 220 countries and territories) SC Johnson (Working in Rome, Geneva, London, and Kiev) Northern Foods, First Direct and DHL (working in Prague, Phoenix, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and London). This work tends to be international, large scale change – working at a Regional or Global level with Business units, Regional Leadership Teams, or Business Transformation Programmes.
Pro bono charity clients include Teach First, Pilotlight and Oxfam, working constantly with these organisations for between 3 and 7 years on Organisation Development and Leadership development initiatives.
As part of his Organisational Development work, Richard will be teaching the Leadership and Engagement elements on an International MSc in Moscow during 2013 at the Presidential Academy of the National Economy. He also teaches Change Management on Clore Courses several times a year, and People Management and Relationships on the Clore Emerging Leader Programme. Other speaking engagements include; Leads University Business School in 2013, as well as the Theatrical Management Association conference and the annual conference of Arts Development in Birmingham.Richard has also set up and runs a charity called The Everyone Foundation with support from Desmond Tutu. The charity is committed to bringing people together to improve the world for everyone, and it does this through a series of action learning projects, speaking engagements and by promoting a commitment to our common humanity. The Everyone Foundation is currently working with WWF, Legacy Trust, GLA, Comic Relief, Oxfam, One Campaign, A New Direction, Arts Council England, VSO, Join in UK, Cass Business School – Centre for Charity Effectiveness, MyTime, Common Cause, Graeae, Gulbenkian Foundation, The Audience Agency, and CRESC (Manchester University Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change)He is also Chair of Spread the Word – the Literature Development Agency for London and ACE NPO, and founding chair of Peckham Space. At Spread the Word Richard oversaw a Strategic review in his first year, a new staff team, a refreshed programme and an invigorated and engaged board. Richard is passionate about the role that Spread the Word plays in developing talented writers, especially diverse voices that do not traditionally have access to excellent arts experiences or the opportunities that these create. Spread the Word has just launched the first Young Poet Laureate for London, announced the first Spread the Word Short fiction prize and will be launching their new digital press, called flight, soon.
Richard completed his first Marathon in 2012 and was a cast member in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games in London, and is a founder member of the House of St Barnabas, a members club for people committed to social change.