Richard received a PhD in Electrical Engineering from UNC Charlotte in 1998. While in graduate school, he authored over a dozen conference or journal papers and presented papers at several conferences. After graduation, he worked as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ doing research and development in integrated circuit design for use in optical communications with the Optical Data Networks group. During his tenure at Bell Labs, he was an inventor on two U.S. patents. In 2000, he left Bell Labs to join Xanoptix, Inc., a startup company in Merrimack, NH that manufactured optical transceiver cores, where he worked as a test and development engineer.

In 2006, Richard joined Hovey Williams LLP to become a patent agent. He has focused his practice as a patent agent on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications in the broad areas of mechanical components, electronics, signal processing, computer systems, software, and communications systems. Specifically, he has experience preparing and prosecuting patent applications involving electric motor assemblies and control circuitry, optical fiber components, laser amplifier systems, smartphone and other handheld devices hardware and applications, fitness band and smartwatch devices, integrated circuit and printed circuit board design, integrated circuit wafer fabrication systems, wireless communication electronic circuitry, advanced manufacturing systems including 3D printing, composite material component manufacturing, aviation navigation and radar systems, personal and automobile navigation systems, marine sonar systems, machine learning software, big data analysis software, and audio electronics, among others.