Our Governance and structure

The Company is governed by a Court consisting of a Master, a Senior and a Junior Warden who are elected from the Court and between fifteen and twenty four Assistants. All members of the Court are elected from the Livery. The majority of the Court of Assistants must be engaged in the farming industry. Past Master Assistants, in descending order of time since passing the chair, leave the Court in turn.

Richard’s introduction to the Livery was in 1996 when he participated in the very first Challenge of Rural Leadership Course which persuaded him to join the Livery in 2001 – clothed by the then Master, Princess Anne.

Richard attended Edinburgh University to read agriculture before starting a career as an agricultural advisory officer at ADAS. Professional genes kicked in and he decided to join Spicers in Cambridge and became a farm accountant. Over 30 years practising there the organisation morphed into Deloitte where, over the second half of his stint, he worked as a partner leading the Food and Farming practice.

Richard joined our Finance committee and eventually became Chairman in 2016. It was an eventful few years, mostly consisting of dealing with both our Hall and what was then Farmers and Fletchers Hall Ltd (FFHL) when trading was not good and finances were tight.  He continues to chair the Hall stakeholder group, working ever more closely with the Fletchers.

Other notable developments over the past 10 years include the creation of our Alumni Association and reorganisation of our Charity’s governance. He is planning to add to this with our ‘Tri-master’ initiative, raising the depth and breadth of our work with all City Farms, and Surrey Docks Farm (SDF) in particular.