Greater Southampton Area
Richard D. Lewis founded the Berlitz School of Languages in Finland in 1955, and later opened a further 5 schools in Finland. In addition, he opened Berlitz schools in Norway in 1958 and in Portugal in 1959. In 1966, Lewis founded the Berlitz School in Tokyo and spent the next 5 years living and working in Japan, where he became tutor to Empress Michiko. Since 1971, Lewis has been providing residential English language courses for foreign executives in the beautiful setting of Riversdown House, a 14th century Mediaeval Great Hall on a 40-acre estate near Winchester, Hampshire, where he also lives with his family. Riversdown House clients include Michelin, Allianz, Iberia, Siemens, E.ON, Rolls Royce and ABB. In addition to his career running language schools, Lewis is also well known for his work on cross-cultural understanding. He wrote the book “When Cultures Collide”, now in its third edition, and gives cross-cultural seminars and keynote speeches to international corporations, as well as governments. Clients include UBS, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Gazprom, Nokia, Unilever and the World Bank. He is currently Chairman of Richard Lewis Communications Ltd.