Richard Noble

Richard Noble succeeded against all the odds when his SSC Car went supersonic. A true eccentric, he has boundless amounts of determination that is evident throughout the many years he has been obsessed with speed records. Richard Noble is an entertaining after-dinner speaker and a uniquely inspirational conference speaker recounting his feats in speed.

Born in Edinburgh in 1946, Richard Noble began his career selling paint for Dulux. He chose not to go to university wanting to get stuck into projects straight away, he travelled the world extensively, always showing an adventurous spirit.

At a very young age, Richard Noble was inspired by John Cobb whom he had seen racing his boat Crusader on Loch Ness only weeks before he died during an attempt on the water speed record. Richard set to work to build his own series of jet-propelled cars with the aim of breaking speed records.

An avid adventurer, Richard confidently talks about making high risk ventures in a low risk society, drawing on witty and insightful stories from his own record breaking projects.

Some of his other ventures include the ARV Super2 light aircraft, the Atlantic Sprinter Blue Riband contender, Programme Funding, an original television funding company, and the last, Farnborough Aircraft, which is creating the first point to point taxi aircraft.

These projects all started very small and being original in concept attract only very limited resource. So, they aim to keep it simple agile and productive. An expert in delegating responsibility and authority, Richard knows the mechanism for creating a successful team.

Richard’s ventures have always tended to be innovative - and that puts them against the odds and against the system which will always favour the conventional. Whilst support in terms of people and resource tends to be forthcoming, the financial support has always been the most difficult to achieve - whether sponsorship or investment - and often because of the financial community's real doubts about the team’s ability to achieve.

As a conference and after-dinner speaker, Richard Noble illustrates the presentations with unique video and explains the huge problems in trying to persuade the established system to consider and implement change, as well as listen to original thinking. Able to speak about breaking records, risk, strategy and teamwork, Richard is an ideal speaker for the corporate circuit.