After a childhood in Venezuela, Qatar, Zambia, Kenya and Britain, Richard worked as a teacher in Botswana from 1970-71. When he left university he joined the UK Ministry of Overseas Development. As well as working in London he spent time in New York at the United Nations.

From an early stage in his career he was involved in both marketing the company's services and developing new courses. He pioneered the development of a number of his company's skills seminars - including Presentation, International Negotiation and Meeting-Handling - and also helped launch the company's cross-cultural programmes. He has worked with such clients as Air France-KLM, BP, Capgemini, Deutsche Bank, Duracell, Gillette, Panasonic, Pfizer, Renault, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, and State Street at a senior level over many years in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and North America.

As Director of The Company 's subsidiary in Tokyo (1990-92), Richard was responsible for dealing with major Japanese corporations both as salesman and purchaser. He also had to manage a multi-cultural team of Japanese, Americans, Canadians, British, Irish and Australians. He remains actively involved with his company's Tokyo operation and has visited Japan 30 times in the past 15 years. His last visit was in January/February 2008.

Among his current training and consultancy commitments are: Air France-KLM (Optimising Teamwork), GE Healthcare (Speaker Training), Panasonic (Working in Europe), Quintiles (Bridging the Culture Gap) and Valeo (Working with the Japanese).

Richard is co-author of a cross-cultural communication book, has written many articles on cross-cultural skills, and is a frequent speaker on international communication issues at conferences.