Richard is the founding director of the UCT School of Design Thinking (d-school) at the University of Cape Town. Funded by Hasso Plattner, the       d-school is a unique offering in South Africa that leverages the d.school network of both Potsdam, Germany and Stanford, United States. It is the only African school of Design Thinking that is officially affiliated with Stanford and Potsdam, drawing on the unique expertise, research and networks of these two institutions.

Richard spent 10 years as a partner and director in an award-winning Cape Town-based new product design agency developing consumer products, services, systems and user-centred research in emerging markets for diverse local and international clients. He is also an external examiner for UCT’s engineering design course and spent a number of years lecturing UCT architecture students on the Theory of Structures. Richard’s education includes a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Cape Town, a Masters in Innovation Design Engineering from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College of Science and Technology (London) and an Executive MBA (awarded with Distinction) from the UCT Graduate School of Business.