Richard is a former Goldman Sachs M&A banker and CEO of two minority-owned companies. Throughout his professional career, he has been focused on the opportunities and the nexus of business and diversity in the USA and abroad. First, as one of the original members of Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group (UIG), which has committed $9.1 billion to under served communities since 2000. After Goldman, Richard was the co-founder of both Alliance TRACE Media (the former holding company for TRACE-TV) and The TRUE Agency (an innovative marketing agency that pioneered the concept of “transculturalism”). Richard’s passion for diversity and development goes back to Harvard College, where he graduated cum laude with a dual concentration in History and Economics and studied both post-colonial development in Africa and the Caribbean and also the economic history of African-Americans from slavery to civil rights.

In 2009, Richard founded Fort Greene Partners (FGP) in Brooklyn across the street from Fort Greene Park with a mission to specialize in advising minority owned businesses and Fortune 500 companies looking to expand their supplier diversity efforts. Clients have included Beneficial Life, BET/Viacom, FIS Group, Genesis Companies, Goldman Sachs and TIAA-CREF.

Overall, Richard has over 25 years of professional experience in finance and diversity. The Co-Founder and Chairman of Alliance TRACE Media (Netherlands); the Co-Founder and CEO of The TRUE Agency; former Vice President, Goldman Sachs & Co. in merger & acquisitions, real estate and telecommunications, media and technology, in addition to his early work with Goldman’s Urban Investment Group.

Richard is a member of the French-American Foundation and the Board of Trustees of The Buckley School and he is a former board member of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music Development Corporation and St. George’s School (Newport, R.I.). 

Richard graduated from Harvard University (BA, History and Economics, cum laude), Stanford University Graduate School of Business (MBA) and the European Community program at Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Paris). He has also passed
the Series 7 and 63 examinations.

Richard lives in Manhattan, New York with his four children.