Richard Tait is currently president of R .H. Tait Associates, Inc., a management consulting firm founded in 1997 that specializes in helping companies excel at product innovation and new business development. Richard's accomplishments are highlighted by a 22 year research, management and consulting career with DuPont that included positions as senior research physicist for DuPont Central Research and Development, planning manager for DuPont Corp R&D Planning and R&D lab director for DuPont Diagnostic Imaging. He was also a founding member and Innovation Manager for the DuPont Center for Creativity and Innovation.

Richard brings a wide range of consulting insights and expertise to his work with clients. He was a principal consultant with DuPont Consulting Solutions where he led DuPont's Corporate New Product Network and implemented rapid cycle-time product development processes in several of DuPont's business units. Richard also helped to lead the effort to develop and implement DuPont's Business Initiative Process for managing business growth efforts.

Outside DuPont, Richard was co-leader for the consulting effort for global implementation of product development best practices at Dyno Nobel (the world's second largest explosives company) and at the Personal Care business of Noveon, Inc. (a specialty chemicals company). Richard has also helped small, mid-sized and large companies (such as Valleycast, Inc., Berger Instruments, American Foods Group and Mead Westvaco) develop strategic growth plans and drive strategic growth projects.

Richard has a Ph. D. in physics from Cornell and a B.S. in physics from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the American Chemical (ACS), the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) and the Commercial Development and Marketing Association (CDMA). He is a certified New Product Development Professional (by the PDMA) and is a certified facilitator for the Bottom Line Innovation creative problem solving process (by BLI Associates, Inc.). Richard was a co-developer of the "Institute for Inventive Thinking" for the National Inventors Hall of Fame and has been a featured speaker for TEC (The Executive Committee). Recent publications include: "Innovation - Taking Ideas to Market" (published in the book Total Creativity in Business and Industry: Roadmap to Building a More Innovative Organization) and "Improving New Business Development Performance at DuPont I, II" (published in Research-Technology Management and given the Maurice Holland Award as best paper of the year for 2002).