Richard Murphy

Richard Murphy is the man behind EDM 854. Richard is:

45

a chartered accountant

He:

is an economics and accounting graduate from Southampton University

trained with KPMG and specialised in tax after qualification

set up his first firm of chartered accountants at the age of 26

grew that firm into a three partner practice servicing 800 clients by the time he and his partners sold it in 2000

now runs Fulcrum, Chartered Accountants

has in parallel also been chairman, chief executive or finance director of nine small businesses covering:

o manufacturing

o environmental auditing

o IT

o training

publishes his own software on accountingweb.co.uk

has been chairman of the governing body of a primary school and an undergraduate and postgraduate theatre school and a charity trustee

He writes for the Observer on tax and related issues and his articles have appeared in Accountancy, Accountancy Age, the Guardian and a range of consumer magazines and web sites

He is passionate about business. Profit is for him the sign of a business that:

has a good idea

executes it well

meets a need

uses its resources appropriately

It doesn't matter whether you're blue, red, yellow or green; he thinks these criteria should apply to business systems.

Of the businesses he’s run:

one end up quoted

one manufacturer he set up from scratch

two were turn round situations, and he left them making good profits

one was venture capital funded

one transformed itself into a charity

and some just got on with doing things well

When not working Richard:

is married to a GP

has two pre-school age sons (and a sleep deficiency to go with it)

lives in Cambridgeshire, having moved out of London after 22 years (and swears he’ll never go back)

His passions are:

theoretical economics

theology

transport history

Ipswich Town Football Club

If that combination is not evidence enough of his unconventional thinking, nothing will be!

His report on People's Pensions can be found on www.neweconomics.org/publications