Richard Dikstra

As well as running Belle Media, Richard is also a children’s author. His middle grade, adventure series, Tigeropolis, about a family of vegetarian tigers battling to save the world, is based on his own experiences over many years of conservation in India. In Autumn 2020 he wrote the scripts for the 10-part, Fun Kids Radio series, Captain Bobo, narrated by the late John Sessions. The series was based on the picture books series he wrote with Kay, celebrating a golden era on the Clyde.

Profile

He has been a Director of Belle Media since mid 2009 and over the years has been involved with a wide range of creative industries projects

In 2013 he co-wrote Belle Media’s first publication Hurricane Hutch’s Top 10 Ships of the Clyde. The book went to reprint in late 2016.

He helped launch pioneering social media platform, Tiger Nation as well as being responsible for Belle Media’s archive focused social interaction initiative The Poppins Project, part of Innovate UK’s Long Term Care Revolution.

Before joining Belle Media, Richard held a variety of senior roles with companies he also helped establish, including Artem Digital a leading provider of digital assets to Film and Television post-production and to the Video Games sector.

Prior to this he founded Metro Cable – backed by UK Venture Capital investor 3i Group plc. The main operations were sold to NTL, now Virgin Media. Other career highlights include working with Hutchison-Whampoa in Hong Kong where he successfully argued the case for telecommunications competition and led the team planning a multi-channel broadcast production facility that morphed into Star TV. Back in the UK he devised the sub-contractor model now used in televising the UK Parliament and later helped establish a number of well-known broadcast channels, including MTV Europe.

Other Information

An established Business Angel he has investments in a number of Tech companies. He has travelled widely and is a non Exec Director of Specialist Travel Company – Steppes Group.

A passion for wildlife and travel saw him help found Discovery Initiatives – an innovator in tourism as a positive agent for conservation. Discovery worked with NGO’s across the world and contributed over £1.5million to conservation projects.

For 2 years he was a Non–Exec Director of Dimensional Imaging an award winning spin-out from Glasgow University specializing in 3D and 4D imaging and now working on major VFX heavy films such as Blade Runner 2049 and Justice League.

He is a Member of BAFTA, the IoD and the RTS and is a Fellow of the RSA. Interests include film, theatre, travel, golf, rugby, and wildlife photography.