Richard has been Communications Director for the BLOODHOUND Project since April 2008.

He and his team have generated over £150m worth of positive coverage across a spectrum of media ranging from the Beano to The Economist, Al Jazeera to CNN.

As well as managing all broadcast and web-TV output, he devised the Project brand identities, created animations, staged events, negotiated international broadcast deals and helped secure sponsors.

He is also the founder and Director of Mettle, a communications consultancy specialising in science, technology and engineering.

Mettle advises on communications strategy and handles media relations, report creation and film production (broadcast, web and video) for clients including Airbus, McLaren Group, Sony PlayStation, Southampton University, the UK space industry and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Having started his career as a BBC researcher and then Unit Publicist for The Big Breakfast, Richard has lead many notable PR campaigns over the past 20 years, launching Sony’s PlayStation, EMAP’s Heat Magazine and the Design Council’s Millennium Products initiative.

Launching the Science Museum’s Science of Sport in 1995 marked the beginning of a ten-year, award-winning retained relationship with the Museum and a move into science communications. It was also the first time Richard met Richard Noble – as Knight had him fly him back from testing Thrust SSC in the Jordanian desert to open the Challenge of Materials Gallery. This meeting did not make a lasting impression on Mr Noble.

In 2000, at the request of the Museum, Richard (Knight) started his own agency, Mission21. The agency subsequently won awards, was rostered by the COI and was acknowledged as a leader in science communications for its work with organisations such the Institute of Physics (Einstein Year), British Science Association (National Science and Engineering Week), Eon, Research Councils UK, The Green Building Council, Institute of Engineering and Technology and Wellcome Trust.

For the past six years, Richard has worked extensively in the space sector, being retained by Astrium, Avanti, the European Space Agency and UK Space. He launched the UK Space Agency in 2010.

Richard Knight is married with one child, a shed full of bicycles and a garage full of motorbikes that don’t go. His biggest regret (this year): missing the chance to spend the day playing with the new McLaren MP4-12C (which he helped launch) on the Top Gear track…