Dr Marcus Richards joins FYLD as Board Chair and Advisor

Dr Marcus Richards, oil and gas luminary and Executive Advisor to Boston Consulting Group, joins FYLD as Board Chair and Advisor

FYLD, the utilities industry fieldforce platform that delivers safer and more productive operations through the surfacing of data-driven actionable insights on operational performance, has today announced the appointment of Dr Marcus Richards as its Board Chair. 

Dr Richards will serve as an Advisor to FYLD as the company builds on its demonstrated capabilities to improve remote site management, increase productivity and drive safety outcomes for utilities company’s field force operations.  Dr Richards brings substantial experience to the transformation journey the utilities industry is currently facing.  As a former Group Chief Executive of Dana Petroleum, Non-Executive Director of Naftogaz and Senior VP at BP, he has led multiple business performance transformation projects.  Of his appointment, Dr Richards said:

“Safety and operational excellence lie at the heart of business.  Given the changing dynamics of the utilities sector, the only way the industry can respond to the pressures it faces is to fully embrace digital change.  Most companies miss the opportunity to capture the extensive data they create daily from their field work force and, with the data they do capture, fail to capitalise on it to drive substantial productivity and safety gains.

“FYLD seamlessly integrates into the working day of field workers to achieve data capture and, through its unique approach of turning this unstructured data into insight driven actions, has the potential to revolutionise the field force operations of utilities companies – and beyond.  I look forward to partnering with FYLD and the team as this business grows and works with leading utility companies to transform their field force operations to be fit for the digital age.“

Dr Richards views data as the most important business asset that leaders can harness to drive change after many decades leading businesses with substantial field force operations. He believes that FYLD’s unique approach to the collection of unstructured data such as video, imagery and voice, enables the utilities industry to solve long-standing problems using technologies such as artificial intelligence to deliver actionable insights.  This is well aligned with BCG observations that by standardising and optimising their workforce management procedures, utility companies can increase workers’ availability in the field by 50% and reduce by 25% the time needed for routine jobs.

Shelley Copsey, CEO of FYLD, said:

“We are delighted to have Dr Richards join us.  The quantum of change the utilities industry must deliver upon in this decade is substantial and it is clear that many of the legacy systems utilised in the industry are both costly to maintain and fail to enable data led transformation.  I look forward to engaging with Dr Richards on his experience in leading large scale transformation projects for businesses with substantial field force workers and having this inform our product roadmap for the benefit of our customers.“

John Morea, CEO of SGN added:

“SGN warmly welcomes the appointment of Dr Richards to the Board Chair role at FYLD.  Over the last 12 months working with FYLD, we have seen significant impact at SGN in terms of smarter working and safety outcomes which has helped us as we continue to navigate through the Covid-19 crisis.  The experience Dr Richards brings to the partnership will be of great benefit as FYLD enters its next stage of growth and partners with more utilities to transform their field force operations to be fit for the digital age.“