Richard Freeman

About

Richard founded Always Possible in 2015 and leads its direction, its senior client relationships and the design of its biggest projects. 

Richard founded Always Possible in 2015 to help organisations make sense of complex places and turn evidence into action.

He’s a strategic development consultant with more than 20 years’ experience across place, economic development, skills and cross-sector partnerships. He’s at his best where a problem doesn’t sit neatly inside one organisation, working out what’s really going on, who needs to be in the room and what could practically change.

Much of his career has been spent where employers, educators and public services meet. After cutting his teeth in press and PR, then developing leadership training for film and TV sectors, he managed youth engagement in inner-city London, then led vocational learning programmes in the creative industries as Operations Director at DV8 Sussex. Today he works on regional skills planning, labour-market evidence and economic strategy.

He’s an experienced chair and facilitator, having led more than 300 events, and hosts the Sussex And The City podcast on devolution and place. He co-founded the Sussex Intelligence Unit, where he leads research design, and sits on the Brighton & Hove Economic Growth Board and the University of Brighton School of Business and Law advisory board.

His particular skill is making complex evidence simple, not simplistic.

EXPERTISE: Place and economic strategy · Skills and workforce development · Research design and evidence synthesis · Facilitation and convening · Devolution and local government

QUALIFICATIONS: MSt English, University of Oxford (Distinction) · BA (Hons) English and Drama, Royal Holloway (First Class)

FELLOWSHIPS: Royal Society of Arts · Chartered Management Institute