Hello, I’m Richard Hughes-Jones

Graduating from the University of Sheffield in 2001 with a degree in Geography & Politics, I began my career in economic development, focusing on real estate and infrastructure and qualifying as a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS). I joined the Strategy team at Deloitte Consulting in 2006.

From 2008 to 2012 I was seconded from Deloitte to HM Treasury, to the Equitable Life Payments Scheme team. It was established by the Government to design and deliver a £1.5 billion programme to compensate 1 million policyholders who lost sizeable portions of their pension as a result of the Society’s collapse in the late 1990s.

I was the first member of a team that grew to approximately 20 people. As Head of Operations I played a central role in forming the Programme Management Office, Senior Management Team and early Board. I led the procurement of a £20m annual IT delivery contract. I experienced leadership at the highest level, briefing Ministers and senior officials weekly, within Treasury and in Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons.

After my HM Treasury secondment, I took a five-month sabbatical from Deloitte. I embraced my dream of leaving it all behind to go and live in my trusty Volkswagen campervan in the French Alps for the winter. There’s more about my skiing and climbing adventures on my no-longer-updated personal blog, onefootinlagrave.

Returning to Deloitte in 2012, I was the Business Account Manager for a £70 million annual revenue account. Coordinating the account and Partner Executive Group crystallised my understanding of leadership at a senior corporate level.

Through Deloitte’s partnership with London Business School, I supported the design and delivery of an incubation programme for technology start-ups founded by MBA students. I joined the Deloitte Social Innovation Pioneers programme, set up to support high-performing social enterprises to grow and become investment ready.

I left Deloitte in September 2013 to set up my own venture focused on helping start-up and high-growth businesses scale.

Eighteen months into my entrepreneurial journey, I found myself facing an altogether different challenge. Diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer at the beginning of 2015, I journeyed for 3 years through several operations, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

From 2018 onwards I began rebuilding my business. I worked for a 60-person data science business located around London’s Silicon Roundabout. Reporting directly to the two co-founders and CEO, I was a member of the Leadership Team and played a central leadership role in restructuring the business and culture.

I lectured on the London College of Fashion MBA programme and MA Fashion & Entrepreneurship course, teaching business modelling and fundraising. For the Centre for Fashion Enterprise, I coached dozens of early-stage founders as part of their Fashion Technology Emerging Futures programme, a £5 million programme funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

I also took on a Non-Executive Director role at a start-up direct-to-consumer sustainable lingerie business. At its peak, it employed 10 women in its production studio in Hackney, London and boasted a large social media and customer following.

I’m now in full remission from my illness but continue to bring that experience to my coaching, helping clients deal with uncertainty and build resilience with empathy and compassion.

For the past two years I’ve been experimenting with AI tools in my own coaching practice. Not as an AI expert, but as a fellow practitioner working out what is genuinely useful and what is hype.

That experimentation led to AI-Augmented Coaching, a live online course helping experienced coaches use AI to build on their own judgement and presence, not replace them.

I live just outside London with my partner Tamzin and our young son Leo. When I’m not coaching, you’ll find me avidly reading, squeezing in some miles on my road bike or at the local climbing wall.

Fascinated by markets and investing, I run my own modest investment portfolio with a double-digit percentage allocation to digital assets. I’m most proud of my sneaker collection, including my unworn pair of Adidas NMD HU Pharrell Human Races, my two pairs of Virgil Abloh Nike Air Max 97 Off-Whites and my Adidas Originals x BAPE 84 BAPE® Low ‘Fresh Forum’ sneaker and digital twin NFT.