Richard Mullender Keynote Speaker

Richard Mullender is a popular keynote speaker for audiences who want to learn the art of negotiation.   Richard is Former Lead Trainer at Scotland Yard’s National Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit and the Founder of The Listening Institute.

After a 25-year career working in the London Metropolitan Police as a detective investigating serious crimes, Richard moved into hostage negotiation. He quickly worked his way up to become Lead Trainer at Scotland Yard’s world-renowned National Crisis and Negotiation Unit. As a hostage negotiator, Richard built his career on elite listening techniques. He was part of the team that negotiated the high-profile release of three UN workers held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2004, and he contributed to the rescue of Norman Kember in Iraq in 2006.

He  is the Founder of The Listening Institute, a consultancy firm designed to help organisations to understand their employees and clients by teaching them how to access someone else’s mindset. He has adapted his techniques from the field and applied them to the corporate world, and it’s now his mission to teach the business world to listen like hostage negotiators. He teaches people to listen as though their lives depend on it, so they can strike better deals.

Richard has a depth of experience, having designed and run courses on elite listening techniques all over the world. He provided training for international law enforcement agencies including the FBI and Metropolitan Police; advised government bodies such as the United Nations and the World Food Programme; and has worked across a wide range of organisations including leading multinationals, investment banks, energy companies and universities.

Richard is author of ‘Communication Secrets of a Hostage Negotiator‘ (2012) and been covered widely in the media including by the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, the Economist (Bartleby), Times Radio, Radio 5 and BBC Radio 4.