Richard has over 25 years of applied research and consultancy expertise in the private sector and academia, and an extensive understanding of public policy. He supervises all BOP’s major research projects bringing rigour, depth and theoretical insight to create robust practical solutions for clients.

He has grown BOP’s research and evaluation work, to offer renowned specialist expertise in social and economic impact; project and programme evaluation; creative industries mapping and cultural statistics; business support and skills development; urban and regional development, intellectual property, innovation and organisational change.

Richard is engaged by projects that span multiple topics and continents. Recent initiatives he has led on include an evaluation of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Programme across five US cities; the research and data partner for UNESCO’s regular reviews of countries’ progress towards the 2005 Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (published as Re|Shaping Cultural Policies); the evaluation of the UK Research and Innovation / AHRC £80m Creative Industries Clusters Programme; an evaluation and strategic review of the German Federal Foreign Office’s Cultural Protection programme (‘Kulturehalt’); and the Creative and Cultural Industries in Urban Revitalization: A Practice Based Handbook, for the Inter-American Development Bank. Richard has also been the Research Director of the World Cities Culture Forum since its inception in 2012, and now plays the same role for BOP’s forthcoming data and insight service on culture in cities.

Richard shares a breadth of experience gained from working across four continents, in countries as diverse as Perú, Jordan, Taiwan, the US, South Africa, China, Brazil, Cuba and Vietnam.

Richard is a world leading expert in research methodologies for the culture and the creative industries, having been an early innovator in the development of frameworks for measuring the economic and social impacts of cultural activities.