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Richard Huntingford

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Founder of HEART FM and ex CEO of Chrysalis plc

Richard is a highly-respected executive and public speaker with over 30 years experience of Board and CEO roles, including CEO of Chrysalis plc, the global music and media group, and Executive Chairman of Virgin Radio. He is best known as the Founder of HEART FM, the UK’s leading commercial radio brand.

At Chrysalis, Richard was instrumental in the development of the company from its or...

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...igins as a cutting-edge indie record label to a global media and entertainment group which, over the years, encompassed a broad range of businesses including radio, music, television, books and digital media. In the process, the company’s stock market value increased over
twenty-fold from £15 million to £375 million in a 10 year period.

Specifically, Richard was responsible for creating and implementing the vision and strategy for a new, brand-led radio business capable of challenging the dominant incumbent operators EMAP, Capital and GWR. His market-led strategy combined organic and acquisition-led growth, the corner-stone for which was HEART FM which Richard founded as a green-field start-up in Birmingham in 1994. The station enjoyed immediate success and further HEART stations soon followed, including the flagship HEART 106.2 which, in a short space of time, toppled Capital Radio’s 30 year dominance of the London market-place. Sister brands GALAXY and LBC followed and met with equal success and before long the business had 450 employees delivering revenues of £65 million and profits of £15 million – all generated from an initial investment of £3 million. In July 2007, the business was bought by Global Radio for £170 million.

In September 2007, Richard was appointed Executive Chairman of Virgin Radio with a brief to develop a new business plan to enable the speedy sale of the business for its owner. In this role, he not only had to manage a challenging sale process (due to the economic downturn and the termination of the Virgin brand license from Virgin Enterprises) but also keep management and staff motivated through a very uncertain period. Richard’s business savvy and people skills led to the successful sale of the business in June 2008 to Times of India for £53 million.

Richard has also held a number of non-executive positions including NED of Virgin Mobile plc (2005-6) prior to its acquisition by NTL. He is currently Chairman of Boomerang Plus plc, an AIM-listed independent television production group, and was recently appointed Chairman of Prince’s Trust Trading Limited, the commercial events arm of the Prince’s Trust.
Richard is an inspiring and charismatic leader with excellent communication (and listening) skills. A proven strategist, he has extensive experience of growing businesses and building teams (including managing creative talent), of brand development (both launches and re-brands), of change management (including mergers and acquisitions) and of managing multiple stakeholders. As such, he can bring a fascinating insight and perspective to the challenges of running and developing businesses (of all shapes and sizes), bringing his talks to life with a plethora of first-hand experiences from his wide variety of executive and non-executive Board roles.

Richard is married with two grown-up daughters and a teenage son and lives in Barnes, London. He enjoys travel, eating out, playing tennis, watching sport and live music.