HILL Richard

For more information, contact us

A British national, culturally English, but living in Belgium for the last 30 years, Richard Hill has spent his working life in international communications. A graduate of Cambridge in Economics and Modern Languages, he first worked as a marketing and promotional executive with export corporations, then moved into the communications consultancy field in London.

Seven years later he was invited to establish a continental European operation for an Anglo-American joint venture. This brought him to Brussels and involved him in extensive travel around Europe. In 1974 he formed his own company, sold to the Saatchi & Saatchi organisation in 1989. In addition to managing an international team servicing pan-European accounts - these included Alcatel, DuPont, eurocheque International, the European Commission, FMC Europe, ICI Europa, Scottish Enterprise and the US Mint - Hill travelled frequently on site reporting assignments for his clients, often into the European heartlands far from the centres of corporate life.

In 1992 he decided to put this experience to good account by writing his first book, We Europeans, a study of the cultures of western Europe. This was followed shortly afterwards by EuroManagers & Martians, an analysis of European business styles. Hill then returned to more familiar ground with Great Britain Little England, an examination of the English psyche. In 1995 he co-authored The Newcomers, an introduction to the cultures and lifestyles of the new members of the European Union: Austria, Finland and Sweden. His most recent book is The Art of being Belgian, a sympathetic appreciation of the people of his adopted country.

We Europeans and EuroManagers & Martians are non-fiction bestsellers with corporations and international organisations and are used as course material by over 65 universities and business schools in Europe, the USA and Asia.

HIll writes occasional columns for various international journals, and lectures at over 20 universities and business schools. His training activities range from 1-3 day modules on cultural relations, negotiation and communication techniques and public affairs to tailor-made in-house programmes. Hill speaks English, French, German, Spanish, and some Italian and Dutch.


Proposed themes

Richard Hill is a lively and entertaining speaker who can examine many aspects of European and international cultures, drawing on the experiences of the thousands of senior executives and administrators he has polled as well as his own knowhow. His themes include inter-country/culture comparisons, the dynamics of culture, a Europe of the Regions, culture and humour, culture and computers, the use and misuse of stereotypes, the art of negotiating internationally, and culture and the European institutions.