Richard is the President of Ameren Illinois Companies and has 3,200 employees. He was responsible for the formation of ANME (Ameren Network of Minority Employees). As their executive sponsor, this group grew and thrived helping minorities network and providing practical skills and knowledge to help minority employees achieve their personal business goals.
He was instrumental in getting Ameren to sponsor minority hiring events, develop educational programs to help minorities prepare for the rigors of our testing requirements, partner with minority organizations to increase candidate pools and encouraged the use of mentors to increase interest in the utility industry. Richard has worked with strategic sourcing to increase the number of diversity suppliers used and to help facilitate the vendor requirements/process to increase minority spend and has developed a scholarship program for diverse business owners at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire.
Richard also serves on the Board of the Illinois Utilities Business Diversity Council. This council is designed to grow business opportunities for diverse suppliers through closer collaboration, technical development and sharing of best practices.