Rick Sturge is a director of Grafton LSR Ltd, the company behind the Bloodhound World Land Speed Record project and the team are aiming to set a new record in South Africa in 2022.
He is a chartered accountant with 30 years of international business experience working in senior finance, commercial and business development roles.
In finance roles he was a divisional FD for the AMP in the UK and then became European chief finance officer for a consulting engineering company. He went on to specialise in outsourcing initially as a Commercial Director at Serco then as a senior Executive in PwC, Accenture, WNS, IBM and Firstsource.
He is a specialist in business transformation and has advised multinational organisations on major corporate change programmes, including customer service and experience, digital transformation, setting up/running shared services and outsourced nearshore/offshore operations. He also has extensive experience in international trade and international relations.
He has a strong track record in training and talent development having worked also for both for the Chartered Institute of Management Accounting (CIMA) and the London School of Business and Finance. He has advised many governments and businesses around the world on technical educational, training programmes and managed development projects for organisations such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, EBRD and the European Union. He has also travelled as a trade ambassador for the UK with UK government and City of London trade missions.
He is a past President of ICAEW in the west of England; a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce); a member of the Faculty Advisory Board at the Bristol Business School; a Visiting Professor at UWE Bristol; a Governor of SGS Further Education College in South Gloucestershire; and a current member of the West of England Combined Authority Economic Recovery Team.