Richard joined the Australian Press Council from the Administrative Review Tribunal where he heard matters in its protection jurisdiction. Before that he was Executive Director of Ad Standards for four years, managing the adjudication of complaints from the public about Australian advertising content. Earlier consulting work included ministerial appointments leading the Triple Zero review following the 2023 Optus outage and as co-lead of a review of the ABC and SBS. Richard contracted to the NSW EPA as CEO during the first quarter of 2020 and earlier led the Australian Communications and Media Authority, Australia’s broadcast media and telecommunications regulator, which he joined as Deputy Chair in 2010.

In his pre-regulator days Richard was general counsel at wireless broadband infrastructure owner and ISP Unwired Group Limited, held positions responsible for the legal and business affairs side of Network Ten's programming activities - including providing pre-publication advice in its newsroom - and practised as a media and litigation lawyer at national commercial law firm Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst).

Richard holds a BA (Hons) from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.