Richard has 16 years’ project and event management experience, following a five-year technical engineering apprenticeship.
Richard was responsible for project managing Scouting’s 100th anniversary celebrations in the UK, with a combined budget of over $2 million. He managed six teams of volunteers, tasked with planning and staging events that encompassed all 500,000 members throughout the UK.
In 2004 Richard created Ambition Events, an ultra-running events company, staging races of between 26 and 200 miles in length. He not only created and risk assessed the multi-day event routes, he was responsible for the complex logistics of moving event villages and equipment as events were taking place. The company had a portfolio of 17 events prior to his selling it in 2006 to move to Canada.
In 2002 Richard started volunteering at Human Race, a UK triathlon event company, and soon became a key team member at all events, including the 2002 Commonwealth. He was asked to return to the UK join the organizing team for the London 2012 London Olympic Games Triathlon, responsible for logistics and field of play operations. It was his responsibility to oversee the ordering of all the required items to stage the events, and then receive, store and distribute to all areas using a team of 20 volunteers. The key to the role was understanding the requirements of all the functional areas, and knowing how to respond and support them at the same time.
Using this London 2012 learning, Richard has created and held similar roles at several World Triathlon Series events (Edmonton, Montreal, San Diego, London, Stockholm, and Chicago). The knowledge, experience and contacts he has gained from these positions has resulted in him spending more of his time consulting or supporting triathlon events around the world.
In 2015 Richard was recruited for the management and execution of seven sports as part of the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.
When not directly involved in event planning or management, Richard is also responsible for website and IT strategy at AProductions.