Prior to joining Walkers, Richard co-founded an opportunity fund focused on commercial real estate debt investments and asset-based lending. Up to 2007, Richard was a Senior Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in New York City where he was Head of Commercial Mortgage Securitisation and Co-Head of Commercial Real Estate CDO Banking. During his tenure, Bear Stearns securitised over $45 billion in commercial mortgage loans and lead managed over $11 billion in CRE CDOs. Richard also sat on the commercial mortgage loan credit committee, which approved over $29 billion in commercial mortgage lending, and was one of only four people authorised to approve loan commitments.
After graduating law school in 1990, Richard practised as a tax attorney in New York City at Brown & Wood (since merged with Sidley Austin) and at Rogers & Wells (since merged with Clifford Chance). In 1994 he joined Moody’s Investors Service as a Senior Analyst in their mortgage and asset-backed finance group.