Richard Smart Bio

Richard is a Managing Director at Beechbrook, helping to drive the firm’s UK direct lending strategy and originating new SME investment opportunities working with the Beechbrook UK Investment team. He will be splitting his time across the UK offices including Leeds. Richard is a member of the UK Investment Committees, and a member of the Management Committee. Prior to joining Beechbrook in 2023, Richard spent 22 years working at RBS / NatWest where he gained significant experience in business transformation and the leadership of geographically dispersed teams, developing a culture led strategic approach. He has led the origination, structuring and execution of leverage finance (private equity) and event driven transactions for growth SME to FTSE 100 customers, across all sectors. Latterly, Richard was responsible for over £4bn pa in debt deployment across c.115 transactions pa; including ownership of the origination and P&L of NatWest’s UK corporate ABL business, holding an external Board Directorship of RBS Invoice Finance. Richard qualified as a Chartered Accountant (FCA) with PwC where he worked within the Audit and Business Advisory Services team. He is a graduate of Newcastle University with a BA Hons.