Richard Palmer

Richard Palmer is an innovator, entrepreneur and business developer.

Richard's career began with Du Pont, where he led new developments for the Polymers business in Europe & Scandinavia. He then worked at a university leading the commercial consultancy exploiting technologies for consumer benefit. Later he studied Design at the Royal College of Art and subsequently set up an award winning innovation consultancy in London, with clients including Levis, Du Pont and Herman Miller. The studio won worldwide acclaim with its 2m high desks and chairs, and has been featured in many design publications.

His next project d3o was his own invention: a soft flexible material containing intelligent molecules that lock together to absorb impact, and has been adopted by many sports brands. Richard led the new product developments for Puma, The North Face, Scott, Head, Burton and many more. It is now sold and recognized in over 50 countries. The brand was an integral part of the go to market strategy, and continues to attract a wide variety of customers in the sports, electronics and military markets. He was awarded o2 Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007 for his endeavors, and was successful in raising significant finance.

Richard has appeared on TV more than 30 times, and featured in a vast number of press articles, including Time, Financial Times, NY Times, and Le Monde. He lectures worldwide from Taiwan to San Francisco on the subject of innovation.

Richard has an MA (RCA) Design, and B.Eng (Hons) 1st class Mechanical Engineering & Diploma in Engineering from Imperial College London.