Richard is the chief customer officer at Freemans Grattan Holdings, the UK arm of the Otto Group, running a number of key customer brands including Freemans, Kaleidoscope and Curvissa. He joined the group in June 2020 as part of a new executive team to help develop and lead a new strategy in the UK focused on digital transformation and growth. As CCO he is responsible for marketing and trading, creative, data and analytics, digital experience and customer operations.

Until September 2019, he was managing director for beauty, marketing and digital at Debenhams. Debenhams was a market leader in Prestige Beauty – being #1 in Cosmetics and under his leadership overtaking Boots to become #1 in Skincare. He was also responsible for a succession of successful Christmas marketing campaigns- including ‘Found It’ that ran for 3 years and delivered 5% LFL growth each year and the ‘You Shall’ campaign that won Social Media Campaign of the Year at the World Retail Awards in 2018.

Prior to that, Richard was Group Marketing Director at WHSmith working across its high street and travel businesses and launching its digital Funky Pigeon brand – having joined the business as part of Kate Swann’s turnaround team. Previously, he was at Sainsbury’s where he led their new non-food strategy including the development and launch of the Tu clothing brand. He joined the business to develop and launch Sainsbury’s Local.

Richard lives in London and has a passion for theatre, enjoys running and is an advisor to the BBC’s Media Action Charity.