Richard Webb

Richard has over 30 years’ experience as a successful CEO, business mentor, and entrepreneur. He founded the tech venture-funding firm Red Ocean in 2005, through which he has incubated 15 tech ventures, many of which have been successfully sold to larger organizations or floated on public stock exchanges. One of those ventures was Effective Measure, which Richard joined at inception in 2008 as non-Executive Director, assuming the role of Chairman and CEO between 2011 and 2014. Today Effective Measure is the world’s largest Profile Validation Platform, operating in 41 countries; it was recognized by Deloitte as the 63rd fastest growing technology company in 2014, posting revenue growth over the previous three years of 485%. It was also recognized by Red Herring Magazine as one of the top 100 technology companies in the Asia Pacific Region in 2012, and by Ant Hill Magazine as one of the Coolest Companies in Australia in 2010.

Prior to this Richard served as the CEO of Renaissance Corporation, the largest publicly listed education and tech company on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, and as the founder and CEO of the publicly listed interactive communications group Blue Freeway, which under his leadership exceeded its first-year IPO prospectus earnings forecast by 20%, and was successfully sold to specialty media and communications company IPMG in 2008. Richard also served as the CEO of Citect, the world’s largest publicly listed independent industrial automation software company, which he successfully sold to Schneider Electric in 2006, tripling the company’s share price during his tenure.

Prior to this Richard was the CEO of Red Sheriff, an innovator of Internet audience Measurement Technology, which he successfully sold to Nielsen in 2004. Under Richard’s leadership, Red Sheriff grew its revenue thirty-fold and expanded its global presence from a small start-up in Australia to the world’s largest web analytics and market intelligence vendor, servicing more than 1,200 clients in 52 countries. After selling Red Sheriff, Richard assumed the role of President of the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions for Nielsen. Richard has held more than 104 company board directorships in 24 countries, and continues to actively support new technology startups globally. He is frequently asked to speak at world conferences on a range of tech-related, entrepreneurial topics including “The future of online advertising” (AdTech, New York, 2008); “The creative class and the future of small, nimble economies” (TEDxAuckland, Auckland, 2010); “One-to-one relationships; are they transnational?” (I-COM, Rome, 2012); “The advertiser-led revolution” (iMedia, Bali, 2013); and “Raising equity in the brave new world” (CEO Summit, Sydney, 2014).

Richard holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering/Engineering Management (Thermodynamics) from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Syracuse University in New York. He has four children and is a dual U.S./Australian citizen.