Richard is the global Director of Research at Education Development Trust. His remit includes the company’s global public benefit research which addresses the needs of policymakers, as well as oversight of the Alexandria Schools Trust (established in 1902) – an investment fund within the charity now used for work with refugees and within North Africa and the Middle East. He has been a teacher, school leader, consultant and government adviser for over 30 years and reported to the permanent secretary in Brunei, setting up the instructional coaching programme that helped improve the country’s PISA results when most other post-COVID results were in decline. Richard is the author of the books Learning and the Brain, Neuroscience for Teachers and Teacher-Led Research. He is on the Education Endowment Foundation peer review panel for quantitative research including the design and implementation of Randomised Controlled Trials. In 2022, the journal Educational Research and Evaluation praised his work on meta-analysis in education (naming it the ‘Churches Method’) and he was honoured by the Department for Education in England for his services to education. For five years, he has been the onstage presenter for the GESS Awards and will lead this again at GESS Dubai. He holds a business school PhD in leadership, organizational behaviour and psychology and an MA in Education.