Richard is Chair of the national Health Innovation Network, bringing together all 15 health innovation networks across England. He is also Chief Executive of Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, working alongside the NHS to understand the challenges faced in delivering patient care, and to support the introduction of new, innovative ways of working that can both improve care, and reduce costs for the NHS, whilst also working with innovators to support them in navigating the complex health and care landscape and helping to create and retain jobs across the region through the economic growth that comes from building a vibrant health innovation ecosystem.

Since 2018 the work of the Health Innovation Network has benefitted over 3.8m patients and generated almost £2.6bn for the UK economy.

In addition to these roles he holds several varied non-executive and voluntary roles. As a long-standing member of the NHS Assembly, a board member of NHS England’s Accelerated Access Collaborative and a member of the NIHR Strategy and Engagement Board Richard is passionate about driving policy level changes and programmes to accelerate NHS improvement and transformation and has recently been part of both the NHS’s Innovation Ecosystem Programme advisory group and the 10 year health plan working group for research, life sciences and innovation supporting the government in building a health service fit for the future.

Richard is a fellow of the Sciana Health Leaders’ Network, a programme which brings senior leaders with diverse professional backgrounds from across Europe together to share the skills and knowledge needed to make change happen in complex systems and address current and future challenges facing leaders in health and healthcare. He is a member of the International Health Federation’s Global Scientific Committee which curates their annual World Hospital Congress. He has also been an advisor to Healthcare UK, providing strategic input into the UK Department for Business and International Trade’s healthcare export activity.

Commitment to diversity and inclusion runs through everything Richard does, and he has twice been recognised by the Health Service Journal in their Top 50 BAME Powerlist as “one of the BAME figures exercising the most power and influence in English health policy.” As Co-Chair of the NHS Confederation’s BME Leadership Network he plays a central role in increasing diversity within NHS leadership. Richard is passionate about the importance of greater diversity within innovation and has conceived a national programme which seeks to address this issue, this work led to a series of pledges which have been adopted nationally by the health innovation networks.

Proud of his Yorkshire roots, Richard is an Honorary Professor at Sheffield Hallam University and chairs the advisory board for their Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, a £14m research institution established to develop innovations that will improve population health and physical activity and is a visiting fellow at the university. He is also Chair of the NIHR HRC in Paediatrics and Child Health Steering Committee, the only dedicated paediatric NIHR HRC.

Richard undertakes a variety of roles focused on developing the region as a great place to live and work. He has recently been appointed as an Ambassador at Sheffield Hospitals Charity, focusing on maximising technology, research and innovation to improve the lives of people across the region. He is the former chair of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Local Enterprise Partnership, a business-led regional function responsible for local economic development. He is currently a board member of the NP11 and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Economic Advisory Council
Richard is a vocal proponent of tackling health inequalities. In 2020 he co-authored the influential report, Levelling Up Yorkshire and Humber; Health as the new wealth post-COVID on the link between regional productivity and population health, going on to present the report’s recommendations at the House of Lords Public Services Committee. The second white paper Empowering local places for health and prosperity: new perspectives from Yorkshire and Humber was published in February 2024. Working with the thinktank Public Policy Projects, Richard led on a report entitled The Digital Divide: reducing inequalities for better health, which focuses on what digital health can do for underserved populations