Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> February 7, 2000
RICHARD HARMAN is the Chief Executive Officer of Mediakey Plc. Having
left Wellington School in 1966 with O' and A' levels, Richard went
straight into articles with a firm of Chartered Accountants, he spent
two years with Binder Hamlyn (now part of Arthur Andersen) before going
into industry as an accountant in 1974. He became an FCA in 1976.
Richard moved to Save & Prosper and then Mitchell Cotts in the City of
London, gaining a wide variety of experience including unit trust
management, overseas trading and work in the property sector, before
joining a small tour operating company, Mediterranean Camping Holidays,
in 1979 as Finance Director and part owner. He became Foreign
Operations Director and then Chief Executive between 1979 and 1984,
gaining invaluable experience in running a small and dynamic company and
helping the company grow from a turnover of GBP 1 million to GBP 8
million. As Chief Executive and part owner, he negotiated the sale of
the company to IPC Magazines, then bought the company back before
selling it again to Granada. In 1985, Richard joined Dorling Kindersley
as Finance & Commercial Director. At the time, the company was highly
creative, but loosely managed by two partners, and had a turnover of
GBP 5 million. After two years, Richard was appointed as Group Managing
Director, with particular responsibility for corporate strategy,
concentrating the company's efforts on which areas to grow. After nine
years, the company was achieving a turnover of GBP 110 million. Richard
also oversaw the negotiations of the purchase and subsequent sale of one
partner's 50% shareholding to Reader's Digest, before buying the shares
back and selling 26% of the company to Bill Gates at Microsoft, and then
floating the Group on the London Stock Exchange in 1992 with a market
capitalisation of GBP 110 million. In 1994, Richard left Dorling
Kindersley to form his own multimedia group. He acquired an illustrated
book creation company called Marshall Editions in 1995 and changed the
publishing direction of the list to encompass more practical title,
introducing vastly improved design standards and a multimedia capacity.
An opportunity then arose to buy Video Arts, the world renowned producer
of management training videos founded by John Cleese and Sir Antony Jay.
The deal was achieved by merging Marshall Editions and Video Arts and
floating both on the London Stock Exchange as MediaKey Plc. At
flotation, Richard was the largest single shareholder. Richard is
married with two children. His main interests include reading, films,
theatre, music, sailing, cricket, golf and travel. Profile
then bring us up to date as to what you see as your business and company
today.
Mr. Harman: I'm a chartered accountant,
