Oliver Richards 2024 Speaker

Head of Critical Minerals and Mining (International)

Department for Business and Trade

Biography

Oliver Richards is the Head of Critical Minerals and Mining (International) at the UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT). His team is responsible for the UK’s critical minerals strategy, which seeks to improve security of supply for UK industry and promote global supply chain resilience. This involves working closely with the public and private sector investment communities.

Oliver is an experienced British government official, diplomat and trade expert. He has led UK government trade teams in Indonesia, Egypt and the wider North African region. He also has a background in Africa and the Middle East and previously served as British Deputy High Commissioner in Botswana.

He has worked widely with most of the UK-based multinational companies to support their business overseas, overseen the negotiation of new trade frameworks in several markets, and has experience of working on UK supported delivery of several major infrastructure programmes.