Management:
Richard has been a Director with blue chip organisations such as the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Audit Commission (AC) and spent 10 years as the Controller of Communication for BBC News. He was also the first Director of Corporate Affairs for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and held a similar position at Camelot Group plc, the UK's National Lottery operator. He has completed a Senior Executive Programme at the London Business School, as well as courses with the Chartered Institute of Marketing and European Centre for Public Affairs.
Managing change:
Richard has been involved in re-structuring five communication teams as part of managing change programmes. These include creating a news and current affairs publicity and promotional team from scratch at the BBC and restructuring the communication operation at the ITC - including closing regional offices in sensitive locations and moving units from one department to another. He also set up the Communications operation at Ofcom and brought together the individual communication units at the Audit Commission into a single team. As part of the transformation programme at Camelot, he unified stakeholder relations and set up a companywide Stakeholder Engagement Panel.
Regulation and business:
Richard completed two years as the Managing Director of Communication and Public Reporting for the Audit Commission where he was responsible for promoting their national reports on financial management; auditors' public interest reports and the comprehensive performance assessment of local authorities. The work spanned local government, police authorities, fire authorities, housing associations and the National Health Service and as well as financial management, focused on good governance and effective use of resources. At Camelot, Richard managed regulatory policy and worked with Government and the National Lottery Commission on the introduction of Better Regulation and earned autonomy.
Lobbying:
Richard has used his lobbying skills to convince parliamentarians of the importance of launching a radio sports and news service - Radio Five Live. Moving the cricket from the 'A' to the 'B' list of broadcasting priorities and therefore helping to inject significant funds into the game and bringing the big five Sports together to campaign on issues such as the sale of playing fields and the development of sporting facilities. He ran one of the most comprehensive public consultations ever about public service broadcasting in the run up to the Communications Bill involving 16 public meetings around the country, citizen's juries and qualitative surveys. He has also appeared before Select Committees and the Scrutiny Committee, assembled specifically for the Communications Bill. With Camelot, on behalf of the National Lottery, Richard lobbied Government on the introduction of Gross Profits Tax (GPT), Better Regulation, Society and 'Grey' Lotteries and Commercial Services, all with the aim of delivering more to Good Causes.
Service and product launches:
At Camelot, Richard's teams supported Marketing in the launch of game enhancements for Thunderball and Euromillions, along with new scratchcards and instant win games. His previous achievements also include managing the press and public relations around the launch of the BBC's Online service; BBC 24 Hour News; BBC Radio 5 Live and the cricket World Cup. As part of promotional activity at the BBC he managed advertising accounts with Leagas Delaney for a campaign on Panorama; the Symington Company for Ceefax and Still Price Lintas for Radio 5 Live.
Networking:
Richard has an extensive network of contacts across a range of sectors, in Parliament and Whitehall and, in particular, across the media and broadcasting. He is Fellow and former director of the Royal Television Society (RTS) and has chaired the judging for camera operator of the year and news channel of the year for the Society's journalism awards. He is a member of the Media Society and the Royal Society of Arts. He is also a Chartered Marketer and has judged the awards for Local Government Communications for the Chartered Institute for Public Relations. Richard was Chairman of Newsworld - a conference, networking and exhibition event for global news providers - for eight years.
Diversity:
Richard has extensive experience of promoting the importance of Diversity. He ran an equal opportunities group in BBC News and was a member of the Hit Racism for Six team at the England and Wales Cricket Board. He chaired and helped to set up a Diversity Group at the Independent Television Commission, which sought to set the same challenges for the organisation as those applied to the broadcasters it regulated. He was also Chairman of the Diversity Group at the Audit Commission and helped to bring together diversity groups across race, gender and disability, as well as encouraging better skills in the management of diverse teams.
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