Richard Deverell

After reading Natural Sciences at Cambridge Richard worked in management consultancy for a few years before spending 20 years at the BBC.

During his time at the BBC he helped to launch and then ran the BBC News website, he ran the BBC Children’s Department (CBBC and CBeebies) and, in his final role, he helped to set up a new division, BBC North, at Salford.

During this period he was also a Trustee of RBG Kew for six years, serving on the Finance and Audit and Risk Committees.

He joined RBG Kew as Director in September 2012, the first in this role to be an organisational leader rather than a professional botanist.

He has led a period of significant change including the appointment of Kew’s first Director of Science and the publication of Kew’s Science Strategy. He has also focussed on returning Kew to financial health, in particular growing self-generated income (from visitor, commercial and philanthropic activities) and securing a 4-year funding settlement from Defra (RBG Kew’s sponsoring department in Government).

His priorities for RBG Kew can be summarised as:

Ensuring excellent development and curation of our collections for global benefit.
Raising the quality and impact of our science – helping to address some of the critical challenges facing humanity.
Ensuring our botanic gardens are world-class.
Improving our educational impact for all ages.
Ensuring Kew is sustainable, financially secure and well run.

He is married with three children and lives at Kew Gardens.