Areas of expertise:
- Digital and content strategy
- Content production and distribution
- Partnership development and management
- Creative uses of digital technology
- Creative industries and digital policy
- Service and product development
With a background in journalism and digital product development Richard has spent his career embracing technical and editorial innovation and interpreting new digital platforms & products to help organisations understand and exploit a changing landscape.
The themes that draw his varied career together are communicating with people, understanding their needs and thinking creatively about how to meet them. That's been manifested in roles as varied as journalism, digital production, business development/relationship management and policy/strategic advice.
Richard began his career in independent local radio, before joining the BBC as a journalist. He was on the launch team for the BBC’s news website and was one of the BBC’s first digital producers. He was one of the first people at the BBC to use the internet as a distribution medium for audio, before moving into developing interactive content propositions for small and mobile screens and then leading BBC radio’s approach to publishing content on external social media and commercial platforms. His final job at the BBC was leading engagement with the cultural sector for an innovative project designed to enable data-sharing across multiple partners.
He’s now an Associate at TAA Tech Ventures (previously Golant Innovation), but also takes on my own projects. He’s currently leading the Data and Tech workstream for P2P, another innovative project designed to enable data sharing across multiple partners and is working with the ODI and Collections Trust on a project to design and define an organisation to provide data leadership in the cultural sector.
He’s also a councillor on Southwark Council and is Deputy Cabinet Member for Digital Delivery.
Richard has extensive public speaking experience which varies from the uses and abuses of Digital Rights Management to creative uses of linked open data – the common theme being how to ensure your valuable content gets to the people who want it and rights holders get rewarded. As a trainer Richard delivered seminars on state aid in the broadcast sector at all levels of the BBC, managing to turn a dry subject into a compelling and thought-provoking experience.