Richard Blundell

Richard has over 40 years of senior executive management and consulting experience in the global Sustainability/ESG and technology sectors.  His experience includes operations management, corporate and market development, mergers and acquisitions, new business initiation, and consulting.  His international experience includes running businesses in East and West Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia (12 countries from India to China).  He has significant experience in new business creation and in the management of growth-stage businesses in global markets. He has completed over $500 million in combined corporate M&A transactions and private equity funding for early-stage companies. 

From 1989-2004, Richard held senior leadership positions with Laidlaw Inc., (Amsterdam) as Director of European Business Development; SGS SA, (Geneva & Paris) as SVP of the Global Environmental Services Division; Hagemeyer Cosa Liebermann (Kuala Lumpur) as EVP of the Technology Division; and The Global Business Sustainability Network (London & San Francisco) as co-founder.  During this period and since 2004, he has held founder and/or executive management positions in more than 10 early-stage, cleantech companies in Europe, Asia and North America, including a number of Board of Directors appointments.

He joined the MaRS Discovery District in 2018 to lead the development of applied innovation networks for global, corporate partners.  In 2019, he was appointed Managing Director of the Cleantech Venture Services group, where he led a team that delivered talent, capital and market services to a network of over 250 Cleantech startups from early-stage revenue to high growth ventures.  He is an advisor to Cleantech ventures and venture capital firms, including family offices (Reference Capital, Geneva), which are investing in the Cleantech space (direct and fund of funds).  

He is an Executive-in-Residence and Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.  He joined the Rotman faculty in 2014, where he teaches MBA , Executive MBA and Global Executive MBA courses in sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship.  He is also an advisor to the Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability charity and sits on the University of St. Michaels College, Corporate Social Responsibility Education Council. 

Richard is a frequent speaker on Sustainability/ESG, innovation and entrepreneurship at global companies, conferences and universities including the University of Toronto, McMaster University (Hamilton), Stanford University (Palo Alto), Fudan University (Shanghai), Henley Business School (Johannesburg), ICFAI Business School (Mumbai) and Fundação Dom Cabral (Sao Paulo).