Richard Thompson

About

I am a leading expert on business and government affairs in the Middle East with two decades of experience in international business journalism. Key attributes: - Editorial leadership and strategy - International management - 20 years experience in international business journalism - Product innovation and development - Writer, speaker and presenter on Middle East affairs - Strategic business and government communications

Experience

• MEED | Middle East Economic Digest (23 yrs 9 mos)
  • Editorial Director, MEED
    Jan 2010 - Present · 16 yrs 11 mos

  • Dubai, UAE
    MEED is the world's leading source of Middle East business intelligence providing high-level information, networking and advisory services to government and businesses in the region. As Editorial Director, I am part of MEED's senior management team with responsibility for all editorial activities, content and product development. I have broad general management responsibility covering operational and strategic management of a large team delivering daily output across multiple platforms. I work closely with MEED's commercial, marketing and product development teams and have a role in strategic relationship management. Leadership & management - Strategic product and content leadership across multiple divisions - Ensure world-class content support for all MEED operations - International management of teams in London, Dubai and Mumbai - Identifying and developing new business opportunities - Understanding and navigating commercial and economic risks - Budget management - Team restructuring and transformation - Strategic relationship management Product development - Many new product launches including: MEED Quality Awards for Projects, SMEinfo.com, MEED Cost Indices, MEED O&M database, MEED Yearbook, MEED Supplements, MEED Quality Awards for Projects, MEED App, MEEDtv - Website build and relaunch - MEED.com (x2), AMEinfo, SMEinfo (launch) Content - Content responsibility has covered: MEED, MEED Projects, MEED Insight, AMEinfo, SMEinfo, MEED Cost Indices, MEED Quality Awards for Projects, Advisory Services, Premium Intelligence Reports,Innovation Live, MEEDtv, MEED Supplements - Strategic development of content to increase focus on data content - Strategic development of multi-media content around video and social media - Commissioning and editing copy - Writing and broadcasting Other activities and roles - Chairman of MEED Quality Awards for Projects - Speaker and presenter on Middle East affairs - Media commentator on Middle East affairs

  • Editor
    Aug 2007 - Dec 2009 · 2 yrs 5 mos

  • London Area, United Kingdom
    Responsible for providing strategic direction and leadership to the MEED editorial teams in London and Dubai. My major achievement was leading a business transformation to reposition MEED as a digital information service after 50 years as a weekly print magazine. The transformation launched a period of strong subscription growth for MEED driven by a new website with a new content management system and relaunching the magazine. I re-engineered the MEED editorial team, relocating the entire team to Dubai from London and closing down MEED's editorial operations in the UK. As Editor, I was responsible for all of MEED's content and MEED enjoyed strong subscription revenue, volume and yield growth throughout this period, as well as strong commercial revenues through advertising and sponsorship sales. - Strategic direction of MEED subscription product and content - Editorial leadership and presence in the market - Delivering world-class, market leading content - Driving subscription and advertising growth - Strategic relationship management - Content support for sales, marketing and conference teams - Editorial team structure and human resource management - Planning, commissioning, writing and editing content - Leading research projects - Conference speaking and high-level presentations - Media appearances and external contributions

    MEED.com | #1 MENA Business Intelligence since 1957

  • Managing Editor
    Mar 2003 - Aug 2007 · 4 yrs 6 mos

  • Mar 2003 - Aug 2007 · 4 yrs 6 mos
    After five hugely successful years in B2B journalism, I was delighted to land my dream role as Managing Editor of MEED - the Middle East Economic Digest. MEED's position as the world's leading source of Middle East business information tied in with my interest in international relations, and a passion for engineering. As managing editor, my role was to refresh an established editorial team with new ideas and energy. We relaunched the magazine in 2004 and won several awards including PPA International Magazine of The Year. I was responsible for: - Content planning and delivery - Editorial costs and resource management - Commissioning, writing and editing copy - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon - Content development including data tracking and online databank - Government and business relations - Politics, business and economics - Magazine relaunch - Conference speaking and presentations - Media coverage and communications - Introduction of content management system for website - Staff issues

• MLex Market Insight, a LexisNexis company (1 yr 2 mos)
  • Editor in Chief
    Jan 2023 - Aug 2023 · 8 mos

    The purpose of this role is to drive the growth and success of MLex as the leading source of high-value news and insight for lawyers, companies and investors on global regulatory risk, and to drive the full integration of MLex editorial operations into the LexisNexis Legal News Group. As well as providing leadership and management to MLex's global editorial team, the MLex Editor-in-Chief provides strategic direction for the MLex business within the LN Legal News Group, including driving editorial integration and excellence across the group, and collaboration with LexisNexis commercial and product development teams. Part of the LexisNexis Legal News Senior Leadership Team. Responsibilities: - Leadership and management of global team - Drive editorial excellence - Strategic direction and planning - Designing roadmap for editorial-driven projects - Leading integration efforts within Lexis+ - Global HR and employment - Drive innovation and efficiency - Collaboration with commercial activity - Budget management - Recruitment and talent development - Product development - Legal risk - Communications

  • Director of Global Editorial Operations
    Jul 2022 - Aug 2023 · 1 yr 2 mos

    Director of Editorial Operations at MLex, a market-leading newswire providing news, insight and case-file research on global regulatory and investment risk. The purpose of the role is to ensure that the MLex editorial team is producing the maximum amount of high-value content as efficiently as possible Responsibilities: - Support editorial operations around the world - Alignment of editorial operations with business vision and strategy - Optimise editorial organisational structure - Drive innovation and efficiency in editorial operations - Coordination and collaboration with commercial activity - Editorial budget oversight - Recruitment and talent development - Co-ordinate and align editorial operations with product development - Collaborate with product development and strategy teams - Liaise with HR team

• Features Editor at Construction News
  Mar 2000 - Feb 2003 · 3 yrs

  As features editor on the award-winning Construction News, my role was to plan and deliver engaging and insightful news, data and analysis for a senior business audience. My first step into editorial and general management, I had responsibility for people development, budgets, and working with commercial and marketing teams. I was part of a great team and in my three years at CN we grew our circulation, considerably raised our media profile and won many awards. Construction News is the newspaper of the UK construction industry providing weekly news, data and analysis about business opportunities, jobs and industry trends. During my time at CN, we were focused on the new opportunities and challenges raised by the privatisation of the UK rail industry; government-led attempts to reform the construction industry, and the country's growing property boom

• Chief Reporter at New Civil Engineer
  Apr 1998 - Mar 2000 · 2 yrs

  As a civil engineer with a passion for communications, I was delighted to have the unique opportunity to step off the construction site and into the world of business journalism with New Civil Engineer, the magazine of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). Read by over 60,000 civil engineers in senior levels of government and business around the world every week, NCE is an important and influential title. For two years I was on the news desk, researching and wring news, comment and analysis about the business of engineering around the world and my assignments included disaster reporting, project reporting and covering the UK railway industry

• Engineer at Laing O'Rourke
  Jul 1996 - Mar 1998 · 1 yr 9 mos

  Civil engineer on various projects in the London area for the UK's fastest growing construction contractor. Part of the site engineering team responsible for providing accurate engineering information to the project teams, ensuring productivity and deadline targets were achieved, recording client communications and design variations, and coordinating materials supplies