Richard is a writer, facilitator and entrepreneur. When he was 27, he founded the Involve Foundation, where he was the director until 2009. Since then he has founded Izwe, an organisation which explores the relationship between social media and social change, where he remains a director.

Richard was heavily involved in shaping the Labour governments policy on empowerment and user involvement. More recently he has worked with the Coalition government on the Big Society. He has written many publications and currently writes for The Guardian newspaper. He has held a number of government positions including, until 2008, being deputy chair of the UK Government science engagement programme: ScienceWise.

Recently he chaired the largest conferences of the French and Swedish EU Presidencies; the Digital Agenda Assembly and steered the public engagement element of the Copenhagen Climate Conference.