Talking about: Identifying and Targeting Large Markets
Why we wanted him to speak: Has grown a global business and kept control of his sales channels from the outset. Has worked at AVEVA for over 25 years. Extraordinarily articulate, dedicated, long term thinker. Critical part to play in driving growth of a business to over £150,000,000 revenue.
Background
Richard Longdon received an engineering training in the defence industry then gained experience in the project management of high value engineering projects. He moved into sales and held a series of international sales and marketing positions.
He joined AVEVA in 1984 and shortly afterwards was made marketing manager for the process products. In January 1992 he relocated to Frankfurt where he was responsible for setting up and running the Group’s German office. He returned to the UK as part of the management buyout team in 1994, subsequently taking responsibility for the Group’s worldwide sales and marketing activities, before being appointed Managing Director in May 1999. He took over as Group Chief Executive in December 1999.
For more information on the BLN Growth Forum, 15th July 2010, visit http://growthforum2010.thebln.com/session/