Richard is a veteran of the electrical utility industry and has served in various leadership roles for the last 30 years at Southern Company. He is current a R&D Program Manager in the Net Zero Technologies Group at the National Carbon Capture Center. Prior to Southern Company, he worked as an environmental regulator at the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Richard is a technical expert with a wide range of CCUS issues including capture, transportation, and storage, UIC permitting, and the Section 45Q tax credit. He has a diverse academic background with a B.S. and M.S. degree in Geology, a M.S. in Environmental Management, and a Ph.D. in Engineering. He serves on the Ph.D. research faculty, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and serves as the committee chair for numerous Ph.D. students. He has published extensively and lectured internationally on a wide range of energy related issues.