Who We Are: Richard Simpson

Having graduated with a degree in biochemistry, Richard joined Fisons’ pharmaceutical division in 1987 as a management trainee. He qualified with CIMA in 1990 and enjoyed eight years with Fisons working in the UK, Singapore and France in a variety of head office, commercial and manufacturing environments.

After Fisons was acquired by Rhone Poulenc, in 1996 he joined United Biscuits and spent two years in the food industry before moving to Cyrk Inc, a NASDAQ-quoted global marketing agency, in 1998 as CFO Europe. In May 2001 Richard led the management buyout of the European promotional products division of Cyrk, becoming managing director of the new entity, Gearworks, which he sold two years later to the UK market leader, 4imprint plc.

Richard joined FD Solutions after a spell in the software industry. He has particular expertise in the pharmaceuticals, food and marketing services sectors as well as extensive experience of doing business in France, Germany and the USA, and has substantial systems implementation experience. In his time here he has:

• Acted as FD to a market research agency, supporting the management team through a trade sale and subsequent earn out, and implementing systems and processes to meet the needs of the new owners.
• Acted as FD to two overseas oil exploration companies that floated on AIM.
• Acted as FD to a fabric designer and distributor, introducing procedures that enabled the company to forecast accurately.
• Acted as FD to a retailer arranging an MBO.

Richard has significant day-to-day management duties in his capacity as our chief operating officer, but juggles that with client-facing work.