Until recently Richard was Chairman of The London Ambulance Service a role he held for 7 years. It is the busiest ambulance service in the world handling 1.8 million calls per year and supporting major London and national events. All this at a time of major change and massive growth in demand. His earlier career in the private sector was focussed on senior transport and logistics roles in aviation, brewing and the oil industry, as well as the 3Pl/logistic service provider sector at a time of rapid development of a solutions focus. He was CEO of the aviation division of Go Ahead plc providing services at 17 UK airports, CEO of Exel Logistics Europe (now DHL), General Manager Logistics at Courage Ltd and Distribution Director at Grand Met Brewing(now Diageo). His earlier career was in the oil industry with Total Oil in the UK and France, setting up a new business at Brussels airport as well as running a JV business at Heathrow for Total, Mobil and Texaco. He has also been involved in Venture capital backed start up challenges. He was UK and International President of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and has held various non-exec director roles in both the public and private sectors including the UK Highways Agency. He launched an executive coaching business with colleagues from Harvard and LBS in 2010 and continues to provide leadership development. He holds an MBA from Cass Business School, London and earlier qualified as a pilot with British Airways. He is a Colonel in The Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps (its current Commanding Officer) a group of senior advisors supporting the MOD. He was appointed CBE in 2004 for services to transport and logistics.