Richard is Deputy Director Innovation in Industry at Innovate UK, the UKs innovation agency. He has overall responsibility for ensuring that Innovate UKs programmes effectively support industry, and direct responsibility for sustainability strategy across all Innovate UK activities, and programmes in Urban Living and Future Cities, Low-Impact Buildings, Resource Efficiency and Water. He is a non-executive director of the Future Cities Catapult.

A PhD in Chemistry, Richard spent time as an academic in the Department of Instrumentation and Analytical Science at UMIST, before a career in industrial R&D and product development with Unilever and ICI. He had a number of senior roles including VP R&D for a Unilever subsidiary and Director for Knowledge and Sustainability with an ICI company. Later he founded and developed two consultancy businesses focusing on sustainability, innovation and intranet strategy, before joining Innovate UK