Richard is a French and Russian speaking professional with 20 years of experience in the extractive industries, governance, sustainability, culture and local/regional economic development with UNDP, Royal Dutch/Shell plc and European governance and energy clients. He has excellent negotiation and coalition building skills with civil society and government counterparts and a thorough understanding of private sector processes and development contexts in Africa and Central Asia.

Richard has strong analytical and communication skills, having created a communications strategy for German Development Cooperation Agency GIZ’s Extractives team and having conceptualized, written case studies and moderated the inaugural “Model EITI” in Kinshasa, DRC with university students. For the Soros Foundation, he provided strategic and design input to Kazakhstan’s NGOs to improve their effectiveness and relevance and equally worked with Liberia’s EITI Secretariat and Multistakeholder Group on its strategic to 2020.

As a Regional Director for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), he managed the European/former Soviet Union portfolio and oversaw country implementation, interfacing with governments, civil society and the private sector. During this time, he facilitated training workshops for National Coordinators on improving the Initiative’s effectiveness in country and created strategies for potential EITI implementing countries, notably Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Turkey.

Richard developed and managed Shell’s human rights portfolio, working with internal functions Contracting and Procurement, Human Resources, Legal, Security and Social Performance to make the legal and practical change required to meet the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. He equally carried out due diligence for Shell’s operations in sensitive countries. Richard developed Shell’s policy towards revenue transparency and supported Investor Relations in strategy development vis-à -vis institutional investors.

Previously, he advised the Danish Institute for Human Rights on rights assessments for extractive and food processing companies in the Balkans and Central Asia and prepared a methodology for the private sector in Kazakhstan on human rights standards to align with OECD accession and investment standards.

He has equally led seminars and workshops (in Russian, French or English), having developed a medium-term cultural economy strategy with governmental and non-governmental actors as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Uzbekistan/Karakalpakstan and Semey, Kazakhstan. Finally, he facilitated a Council of Europe training of Ukrainian mayors on leadership development and inter-municipal co-operation.

For more information, please contact [email protected] referencing N182049.