I have been extraordinarily lucky to have been given so many opportunities and to live a life of such breadth and richness of experience. My main interest is now in giving something back, both through developing societal change research that has evolved from my singular experience and through coaching and mentoring emerging leaders and entrepreneurs who can benefit from that experience.
I have studied and researched at three of the world’s leading universities, lived in half-a-dozen countries, and worked in many more. During my career, I have worked in leadership roles in both public and private sectors, with some of my most significant achievements being at the intersection of the two.
My experience ranges from the detail of specific operations and small business to the big picture of driving business strategy and developing economic policy. Whilst the early part of my career as a UK government economist strengthened my economics, as well as giving me a life-long taste for other cultures and travel, I was never at home in a bureaucratic environment. Had MBTI or similar assessment tools then been widely available, I would doubtless have understood why I was always more interested in ideas, innovation and entrepreneurship.
After studying for an MBA, I then worked for several years advising companies on their business and market strategies with a sideline helping small businesses develop. The latter half of my career has been at the cusp of business and government in various leadership, consulting and advisory roles. These have varied from promoting investment and reorganising government schemes to induce private sector investment, through masterminding and implementing a small nation’s national growth strategy and advising leading reformers in government on developing a market economy in the Former Soviet Union to working with entrepreneurs.
Career highlights and achievements
Creating a rescue package for an essential industry in the Caribbean
![](https://richardstoneman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/parlaiment-st-whitehall-signpost.jpg)
Helping an unfairly labelled prodigal son
Implementing a tourism strategy for the Turks and Caicos Islands
Managing academics advising Russia on developing a market economy
![](https://richardstoneman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/kremlin.jpg)
Transforming a UK government investment scheme for eastern Europe
Identifying early on the strategic threats of relying on Russian gas
Revitalising CARICOM
![](https://richardstoneman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/gas-rig.jpg)
Since graduating from the Meyler-Campbell Mastered executive coaching programme in 2017, I have gradually given free rein to my lifelong interest in innovation and entrepreneurship. With invaluable initial experience coaching on the Executive MBA programme at Cambridge’s Judge Business School, I have gradually built a portfolio of emerging CEOs both in the UK and abroad. As well as pure coaching, I have taken on various roles as mentor and advisor. I am on the advisory board of a fast-growing tech company working closely with its CEO. This includes providing support through regular funding rounds.
I would not have been able to live a life of such breadth and richness of experience without constantly updating my academic and professional qualifications for which I have been lucky to study and research at some of the world’s best institutions. I graduated primarily in economics from Oriel College, Oxford on its PPE programme. I was to return 17 years later when awarded a mid-career research fellowship at Oxford’s specialist international college, St Antony’s, from where I embarked on the most instructive part of my life working in Moscow. About halfway between these two spells at Oxford, I studied for an MBA at London Business School, during which I spent a semester at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
In addition to these periods at leading universities, I refreshed my MBA in the early 2000s on a senior management leadership programme. More recently, I attended two further distinguished institutions when obtaining the FT’s postgraduate non-executive director diploma in 2014 and subsequently graduating from Meyler Campbell’s Mastered programme in executive coaching in 2017.
If you feel that my background or experience could be helpful to you, I would be delighted to hear from you.