The Old Diocesan Issue 10 - Magazine - Page 40
I took over a role I wasn’t qualified
for, but through hard work and
hustling, I made things happen.
The foundation set in places like
Bishops, UCT and Red & Yellow
allowed me to be adaptable and
achieve things that, on paper,
I probably wasn’t qualified for.”
Two years into that he was asked
to relocate to Monaco, taking on
several roles before ending up as
the marketing director for the
international Campari business
unit. He met his Australian wife
there, then was asked to take on
the role of Global Integration
Director for Rum at Campari’s US
HQ in San Francisco.
“Campari was an acquisitive
company, spending billions on
buying brands. They’d integrated
these brands in a pretty ad-hoc
manner into the global group. Now
they wanted a central lead for the
integration of new rum businesses.
It was an incredible position; it had
entrepreneurial characteristics,
but I was reporting to the global
CEO and had to integrate this
$400-million acquisition into
Campari’s global portfolio.”
After several years in the
US, Richard reached a career
crossroads. Living in San Francisco,
he was happy, but probably a little
too comfortable. When Campari
relocated its HQ to New York, he
chose to stay in California, and
take a different direction. “It was
a difficult decision. I’d been in the
spirits business for nearly 15 years,
and with the company for about
The 2020 launch of The Rock’s Teremana tequila is considered the most successful
in the history of US spirits. As of 2024, its estimated value is in the billions.
12. I was evaluating my options.
I think it’s the theme of my life;
when I get too comfortable, I need
to break out. Even though I had
had a great American experience,
it was all within the confines of
the Campari group. I hadn’t really
spread my wings and I was getting
that cabin fever feeling again.”
His next move was a little leftfield: he went into tech, working
as CMO for AKI, a Silicon Valley
mobile advertising start-up. It
meant a salary cut and a whole
new world of 20-somethings and
impenetrable jargon, but he learnt
and grew. Then, when a small
spirits company came looking for
a new CEO, he gave up his stock
options and moved back into the
booze industry. Unfortunately it
was dead in the water before he
began. The company reneged on
the deal at the 11th hour, citing
Richard’s involvement in David
Shepherd’s (1998S) London-based
mezcal brand Corte Vetusto as
a conflict of interest. Caught in
a cyclone of lawyers and stress,
THE CHEERS YEAR
The class of 1998 served up a number of ODs who now work in the alcohol
industry. There’s head boy David Shepherd (S) who started Corte Vetusto
mezcal (Richard is a shareholder); Lorenzo Gabba (O), with vino.co.za, his
Italian wine import business; Derek Kilpin (F), MD at wine importers Great
Domaines; Quintin Mass (F) who has just left Campari to work for MMI in
Dubai; and sommelier Marc Botes (F), co-owner of the Botanicum restaurants.
36 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
Richard got in touch with his
former boss at AKI, who took him
back in a contract role despite
having hired a replacement.
“They gave me a soft landing
pad at a time that could have been
devastating financially,” he says.
“Again, it’s about relationships.
I think the values we were taught
at Bishops are so ingrained in us as
Bishops boys that we don’t realise
how powerful they are and how
people out in the world can see
us as good people. Obviously, our
family and our environment play a
role, but Bishops does a lot of that
heavy lifting for us. That’s why it’s
a platform for people to succeed.”
After consulting to AKI for three
months, he moved back into the
spirits industry for real, when a
recruiter called about the CMO
role at Westward Whiskey. This
eventually resulted in a recruiter
contacting him for a position at
Teremana a couple of years later.
From that point, things started
looking up. It may be the comfort
of hindsight, but Richard is
philosophical about what was an
extremely tough period in his life.
“I’d have never got the Teremana
role if I hadn’t made the step away
from Campari. Life is funny. You
want your path to be linear, you
want progress, progress, progress.
But sometimes you need to take
backwards or sideways steps to
get out of your comfort zone – to
develop, learn and build. If you stay