Richard leads the Sector Growth team in the Semiconductor Unit at the UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST). He was one of the authors of the UK’s National Semiconductor Strategy and the UK AI Hardware Plan and leads the Department’s work to grow the UK semiconductor sector through workstreams on skills, innovation and investment. This has included setting up the UK Semiconductor Centre as a focal point for industry, academia and government to collaborate on semiconductor strategy, launching the Semiconductor Talent Award to encourage more undergraduate students into industry, and working with Silicon Catalyst to establish the ChipStart UK startup incubator.

Richard is a science and technology policy professional with extensive experience across a broad range of technology sectors and policy issues. His previous roles have included managing the strategy and evaluation of the UK government’s Science Capability Review programme at the Government Office for Science, developing innovation programmes at charitable foundation Nesta, and leading the Strategy Development Team at the Wellcome Trust, one of the world’s largest research foundations that aims to address the greatest global challenges in health and life sciences.

He holds an MCHEM Master of Chemistry from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Science & Technology Policy from the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex.