Richard is a Partner at Valpeo. He helps Boards, Investors, CEOs, and business leaders of Dutch and international organisations, create superior value by leveraging the full potential of their people and organization.
Richard is passionate about making business strategies work through people and culture. He helps to identify the organizational and people capabilities required. He coaches, assesses and develops future leaders and teams to become more effective in their context. He supports boards and business leaders with culture transformation and change initiatives, creating the environment of success. He searches and selects the right board members and executives, the right people, in the right place, for the right strategy.
Prior to Valpeo, Richard gained 27 years of international Executive Search, Assessment, Leadership Development & Organizational Consulting experience. He has led, changed, and influenced business outcomes. He is a former holder of Senior Management positions, at division-, branch-, country-, LOB-, EMEA- and APAC level, with some of the world's largest American and English, publicly listed firms in Specialized Finance Recruitment, Executive Search, Leadership & Organizational Consulting across 27 countries, 70 offices in the EMEA and APAC region. Since 2014, Richard runs privately held firms. First out of Singapore, and since 2017 out of The Netherlands, business partner to boards, investors, partners, CEO's and CFO's of private (equity backed) and public companies.
Richard is a global citizen and lived between 2007 -2106 with his family in Singapore, Germany, and Switzerland. He is a Dutch national, with Eurasian roots. Both parents were born in the former Dutch colony of Indonesia, his great-grandmother is Chinese and was married to a German landlord, and his surname is French, descending from 3 French brothers who went to Indonesia in the 17th century. Their graveyards are still to be found in Bogor, Indonesia. The above might explain why Richard is passionate about different contexts and cultures. He is a firm believer of teamwork, diversity, equity & inclusion.
Richard holds a master's degree in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1995). Since 1994, Richard has been trained in a number of scientific psychometric, behavioral, personality, and culture assessment methods of Dutch, American, English, German, and Belgian origin.