Richard has worked in the sports sector for over 20 years. He started his career as a watersports instructor in 1998 and then became a coach, working with international athletes through SailCoach before coaching for NI Youth Squads and Irish Youth Academy. He took up the position of Performance Manager for RYA Northern Ireland from 2006 to 2016, developing the performance pathway and supporting high performance athletes, including coaching the Irish men’s single handed representative at London 2012. From 2016 to 2022 Richard was Chief Operating Officer for RYA Northern Ireland and more recently became Executive Manager of the Northern Ireland Sports Forum. In sport, Richard represented Ireland at two Youth World Sailing Championships in 1998 & 1999 and won multiple youth national titles. Richards interests have always been in outdoor sports and his main hobby is windsurfing and foiling.