Richard Maudslay CBE

Date first appointed: 2005

Richard Maudslay is a non-executive director of Laser Light Holdings, a global networking communications platform that includes optical laser satellite communications.  He is also on the advisory board of XGS Energy which is reimagining the use of geothermal energy in a sustainable, closed-loop manner.  Among other interests he is Chairman of the British Mexican Society.

He is an engineer with a wide-ranging business career, starting in manufacturing then broadening into a variety of private and public sector roles. In 1985, following 7 years in Mexico, he became MD of NEI Parsons Turbine Generators. In 1992, he was appointed to run Rolls-Royce's £1.3Bn Industrial Power Group, covering all Rolls' non-aero interests, military and civil, including power generation and transmission, materials handling and marine propulsion, and joined the Rolls-Royce plc main Board. He remained in this role until Rolls’ major structural reorganisation in 1997 led to its exit from most of its land-based power interests.

He has served as Chairman of MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and of Hardy & Greys Ltd, Deputy Chairman of the Regional Development Agency One NorthEast, Chairman of the North East Science and Industry Council and a member of DTI's Business Group Board. More recently he was Chairman of the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory and a Commissioner of the Port of Blyth. His wider experience has included appointments as a non-executive director of N G Bailey Group Ltd, domnick hunter Plc and the Reece Group.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed CBE in 2006 for services to business in the North East. He is married with two adult daughters and lives in Northumberland.

Richard was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the University in 2007.