Richard Koch is a successful entrepreneur, investor and writer. From 1976 to 1989 he worked continuosly as a strategy consultant, advising the chief executives and boards of many blue-chip US and European corporations, as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, a partner of Bain & Company, and as a founder of LEK Consulting. Since 1989, he has focused mainly on private equity. He was behind the rescue of Filofax in the early 1990s and its remarkable revival, serving as a non-executive director until 1997. He financed the start-up of Belgo, an acclaimed quoted restaurant group operating in the UK and US, and Zoffany Hotels. He is also one of four equal investors who are rejuvenating Plymouth Gin, a distiller dating back to 1793 and now the fastest growing premium gin in the world. He advises Advent Limited, a prominent private equity house in the UK, and is director of Advent Venture Capital Trust, and of Brait SA, a merchant banking and private equity group based in Luxembourg and South Africa. He is also a shareholder and director of Gemini South Africa.
Though he did not deserve it, he was awarded a congratulatory first-class degree in modern history by Oxford University, and an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
He lives in Richmond, near London, England, in Cape Town, South Africa and near Estepona in Spain, trying to arrange his business affairs to coincide with maximum sunshine. He has not yet fully succeded.
The Power Laws: The Science of Success
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less
The Financial Times Guide to Strategy: How to Create and Deliver a Useful Strategy 2nd Ed.