General Manager Infrastructure CERA

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA)

Richard is Christchurch-born, with an infrastructure policy and finance career spanning no fewer than 38 countries, sometimes in difficult, under-developed or post-war areas.

In the course of his employment, Richard has worked with or for governments, utilities, private developers, commercial banks, export credit agencies and multilateral lending agencies. He has an appreciation of the perspectives of different participants in infrastructure development and has advised and/or arranged over USD 8 billion of finance for infrastructure projects.

Richard is deeply interested in development issues and energy and his Master of Philosophy thesis was on the role of good government in infrastructure development. He is a Canterbury University lecturer in finance for the Masters of Engineering Management degree and founder of Ridgway Capital Projects Limited, an independent financial and commercial organisation specialising in advising public sector clients on infrastructure and public utility projects. He now heads CERA’s infrastructure team, overseeing what he calls “big ticket physical things that serve people’s lives” such as transport, energy, water and sewerage.