Our team
Richard Edwards
Richard has worked in R&D consultancy in one form or another for more than a decade. He has founded three very different but complementary R&D companies, built and trained a large R&D team, prepared hundreds of claims, and defended dozens of enquiries.
Since 2008 Richard has progressed through the R&D industry, moving from being an active participant in the claims process towards a training, mentoring, and support role for others. He is passionate about helping people and sharing his knowledge and experience.
Katie Bird
Katie brings a wealth of digital marketing experience to the company, and she’s working behind the scenes on all our online marketing, our website, and all the free guides and resources you can find here.
In the past Katie has worked as an independent marketing consultant for a variety of small businesses, and prior to that, as a web officer for a local authority. She cares a lot about clear communication and a great customer experience, having seen a wide variety of good and bad practices over the course of her career.
Karen Evans
Karen is a Chartered Accountant who has specialised in providing R&D tax relief advice since 2015. She has prepared many claims for a variety of qualifying businesses and says the most difficult aspect of this work is marrying up the clients’ understanding of what qualifies to HMRC specific definition and then presenting the claim in a concise yet informative manner.
Karen joined the R&D Community first as a member and then more recently as part of the team as the R&D Specialist. She has a shared vision of a fair and functional R&D consultancy market, in which competent, knowledgeable, and ethical R&D advisers thrive. Her role within The R&D Community is to help build out the core package of training courses which will eventually lead to the first UK accredited qualification for R&D advisers.
Sam Watkins
Sam has worked in account management for a number of years and in R&D since 2019. As Community Manager she gets to combine both of these together. Her aim is to ensure that you are aware of all of the benefits of membership and know how to make the most of them.
Having first joined as a member of the community and having completed all the courses she is well placed to help and advise you on the benefits of being part of a supportive network striving for high standards in R&D.
Paul Barton
Paul provides client support advice to The R&D Community members, such as claim reviews and compliance check responses. Paul has been advising clients on R&D tax relief claims for over ten years, including leading the claim defence team in a previous role at ABGi (now Visiativ, formerly Jumpstart – a company Richard founded).
Having worked with a diverse client base across software and natural science sectors, combined with his PhD physics education, Paul is able to discuss the full breadth of technology development and R&D tax calculation with clients and communicate this effectively to HMRC. He is well versed in the details of the R&D tax regulations and court cases and is keen to ensure a positive outcome for clients facing HMRC compliance checks.
Jacob Wright
Jacob is now using these skills to help spread the message of responsible practice in the R&D tax relief space and to bring training content to our users. He firmly believes in the benefits of efficient teamwork and clear communication, incorporating these values into both his personal and professional life.
Kevin Bailey
Coming from a scientific research background, Kevin’s career in R&D consultancy started in 2011 working with a specialist R&D company to compile compliant R&D claims for SME’s and Large Companies across all sectors. In addition to assisting companies in making hundreds of claims, Kevin also has extensive experience in dealing with HMRC compliance checks, seeking to resolve these to a satisfactory conclusion, and reviewing evidence and providing further guidance to support claims submitted independently by clients and other R&D service providers.
Kevin has recently joined the R&D community from a Big4 accountancy firm and is excited to now be engaging directly with a wider group of R&D service providers seeking to raise the standards within the R&D consultancy industry to ensure their clients continue to receive the R&D Tax Relief they are entitled to, whilst ensuring claims meet the additional information requirements of the schemes.
