With a degree in electrical engineering, being skilled at building ‘things’ is a given – as well as his tech skills, Richard is equally skilled at building teams and nurturing talent. Not one for using jargon and attempting to ‘blind with science’, he champions plain English and is adept at breaking down complex software issues and promoting understanding throughout the whole business.

Q: Your CV is impressive. What would you say is your greatest career achievement so far?

A: I always think my greatest achievement is ahead of me!

Perhaps my greatest achievement is my career progression because I haven’t been fired (yet), despite being quite candid in my communication!

The things that I’m most proud of in my career include achieving my long-term goal of being a CTO by 40 and the teams I’ve built, which help make companies a success.

Of course, the thing that I really believe is my biggest achievement is my family. Apparently, I’m the best dad in the world.

Q: What inspired you to join Wealth Wizards?

A: I think it was the part of me that wants society to be more fair. I’m inspired by the vision that we can bring something – financial advice – which was the preserve of the rich and wealthy, to everybody.

When interview candidates ask me what’s great about the company, I tell them it’s how caring and compassionate we are towards each other. I’ve never worked somewhere that cares so much about the people which work there.

Q: What do you do in a typical day as CTO at Wealth Wizards?

A: In a typical day, the first thing that happens usually reminds me just how quickly we’re moving. It’s amazing to see the same product and technology that I built, progress so much!

A lot of my time now is spent working with the teams to ensure that there’s clarity in what they’re doing and where we’re heading. I work to ensure the teams are enabled and empowered to help solve the problems which are most important and communicating well about these problems, to other teams in the organisation.

I also seem to spend a lot of time building clarity around where we’re heading as an organisation and ensuring we’re best-placed and equipped to meet the challenges ahead of us.

Q: Which Wealth Wizards project/product are you most excited about?

A: That’s like asking me to choose a favourite child! I honestly think there’s so much potential in all the things we’re working on.

MyEva shows huge potential in being able to reach people and help them improve their financial wellness and I know we’re right at the beginning of what we can do there.

I’m also very excited about the capabilities of MyEva’s sister company, Turo, the customers we’re working with and the scale of their ambitions alongside our’s. I’m not bashful about saying that our ability to massively improve ‘RegTech’ – or, regulated technology – with our Turo platforms is vast. Our AI solutions are capable of making hugely time-consuming, spot-check processes fast and efficient and run in real time, alongside advice being given. This will help ensure everyone is getting the best advice possible and help firms to avoid mistakes, which reduce the insurance burden of advice and therefore helps to reduce costs overall.

Q: Tell us a little-known fact about you.

A: I spent much of my twenties DJ-ing in bars and clubs around London – the first time I DJ’d in public was at the Ministry of Sound when I was 19 – it feels like a very long time ago now.

For insights and posts from Richard, click here to follow him on LinkedIn.