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Australian Story - the people from the episode

This article is a quick introduction to the people interviewed in the Australian Story episode featuring Ric: Karen (Ric's wife), Jim Revitt, Steve Cox, Ravi Marwaha, Bob McTavish, Jim FitzSimons, Francois Naef

Also we will introduce you to the team from Australian Story who made the episode possible: Kent Gordon (Producer), Kristine Taylor (Researcher), Anthony Sines (Cameraman), Marc Smith (Sound)

And some people who should have been mentioned: Fred and Helen Richardson (Ric's Mum and Dad), Sky Richardson (Ric's brother and business manager), Lily Richardson (daughter), Craig Etchegoyen (business partner and good deeply trusted friend), Brad Davis (Exec at Uniloc and friend), The Uniloc team.


INTERVIEWED OR SHOWN IN THE EPISODE

Karen Richardson
(Ric's Wife)- Karen is Ric's wife and dearest friend who faithfully followed him as the journey took them to the States and back. In the episode Karen features strongly as a grounding influence that gives Ric relief from the intense rarefied air of high technology, invention and the high stakes business activity that comes part in parcel. Recently Ric was in an important conference call with executives and lawyers in the States when the line seemed to go dead. "Hello, is anyone there?" Ric said. The executive on the other end of the phone asked "do you have a chicken in your office?"! Ric had got so used to having Karen's chooks around his office that he did not notice them. "No matter how big the business I do becomes, I can always walk out of my home office to be brought right down to earth" says Ric. Karen is also mother to their daughter Lily and a hoard of other family members. Max a red nose staffy, 3 cats and 7 chooks Bev, Dot, Edie, Poppy, Blanch, Vi and Noddy (who is really Liy's chook). Messages to Karen can be relayed via Ric at email ric.r@r2labs.com.

Jim Revitt (Life long friend and media mentor) - As a kid working with his Dad doing contract jobs for ABCTV program Weekend Magazine, Ric first met Jim who was then the head of the program. In a relationship that has lasted most of Ric's life, he would pop in to see what Uncle Jim would think about the latest goings on or i/deas. Jim has been a keen supporter of Ric and the Uniloc story. Whenever Ric came back from the States he would drop in for a cuppa and to catch up. Jim and Ric even collaborated on some of the breakthroughs of the internet age that have only recently become popular. Ric and Jim worked on one of the first ever digital editions of a book for electronic distribution for which Jim supplied the text. Jim comes from a generation that prefers to let what they did shine brighter than who they are. As a result Jim is widely known amongst TV professionals and only fleetingly as the editor for his nieces books. Jim is the Uncle of Australia's most popular female novelist Di Morrissey. For more background on Jim have a look here.

Steve Cox (Life long friend and early coworker) - Ric first met Steve as teenagers. Steve is a drummer and Ric is a guitarist and they spent most of their weekends learning to play Yes and Rush songs note for note while becoming life long friends. Steve was working with Ric on the music sequencing software called TrueTime when Ric invented Uniloc and subsequently followed Ric into Uniloc as a trusted workmate. By the time Ric made the decision to go to the States Steve had had enough of corporate life and decided to go back to his first love of playing music. Steve currently lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales and makes his crust in a musical duet.

Ravi Marwaha (corporate mentor and good friend) - Ric met Ravi when he was a General Manager for IBM in Australia. Ric counts Ravi's support amongst some of his most precious resources of the Uniloc journey. After Ravi set the wheels in motion for Ric's relationship with IBM in the US and Europe, their paths would separate and converge over the years. As Ric's relationship with IBM flourished and then dwindled, his subsequent move to the US and over multiple mini projects with IBM over the years, Ric and Ravi would connect and reconnect. Ravi went on to head up IBM India, then IBM Pacific and ultimately heading up worldwide sales for PC's for IBM before going to Lenovo for a short while during its acquisition and handover. "The last time we met in New York we hugged like old friends who had conquered Everest together... only I felt like he had done it legitimately and I had got dropped off by a helicopter" Ric recalls. "It feels really funny to have real achievers like Ravi vouch for me in the Australian Story episode, when it seems they are much more worthy of that kind of recognition than me." Ravi has subsequently retired to Sydney with his wife Alka where he enjoys his gold, mentors some old friends and gets harassed to make appearances in television shows by a pesky inventor he met 16 years ago.

Bob McTavish (surf legend and friend)- Bob met Ric and Ric's second brother Raece back in the beginning of the 80's when they were traveling the Australian eastern seaboard selling ShadeSaver sun glass cords. They did so well that they could afford to get Bob to make them a couple of surfboards and have been friends ever since. Ric now lives in the same town as Bob and they have become good friends. Recently Bob came up with a new idea for surfboards that helps surfers turn faster and have more buoyancy in their boards by allowing the surfboards tail to remain wider. A few days later Ric had helped Bob file his first surfboard patent after being

Jim FitzSimons (Top flight Lawyer and friend) - Ric met Jim very early in the Uniloc journey. Ric was getting into some business negotiations that were a bit over his head and needed some really good practical and legal advice. Jim and his partner wrote a book about Intellectual Property which was the state of the art at the time. I though Uniloc was going to go all the way so I decided to get the best lawyer I could possibly find. I met Jim and then coerced him into missing tickets for the Australian Open to come solve a problem for me... (I still owe him a trip to the US Open in compensation!)... after that Jim nursed me through the decision to patent and became corporate counsel for Uniloc during the IBM days. Jim has since become a senior partner at Sydney firm Clayton Utz and remains a good friend.


Francois Naef (personal trainer) - Francois (said Franswa) can be seen taking me through a training session as part of the Australian Story episode. Francois was referred to me from my chiropractor after I fell down some stairs and hurt my back... he is a specialist at finding alternatives to normal exercises due to a persons unusual body shape. He is also a muscular specialist and will do things like walk along with you and tell you how to hold your pelvis and why your feet splay out if you don't hold your abdominal muscles a certain way. He is expensive but his expertise means that I get help that does the job without stressing my body too much due to my unusual body shape. Francois works in the Byron Shire and can be reached at his email naef@p-p-c.ch (this is a Swiss site)


THE AUSTRALIAN STORY TEAM

Kent Gordon (Producer) - Kent was the producer of my episode. A real professional with a gentle manner but still gets to the meat of matters. He took over my story when the researcher Kristine Taylor completed due diligence and concluded that a good story was possible. Kent acted as interviewer during my to-camera sequences and gave overall direction and support to the crew. He is also the one that collects all the photos and videos and news items that flesh out the video segments shot by the Austory crew. On top of this he is the one who writes a script from the initial video and outline and then crafts the story into the final product. From where I sit, this task is stupendous as it is so much harder to write a script that has been dictated by the subjects own dialogue. This is real artistic stuff. After shooting is complete Kent will sit with the editor and gently guide them through the subtleties of the story so that a smooth flowing, informative and satisfying story with integrity is delivered. It was a real delight to watch him work.

Kristine Taylor (Researcher) - Kristine was the researcher for my episode. She came down to Byron and sat with me for an hour to explore a possible story. She then starts talking to people related to the episode to see if a complete story can be delivered. Kristine did a lot of work. Discussing with me who may be central to the story and seeing how they fit and then talking to them and fleshing out a story line and angles to explore once the executive producers decide to give the episode the go ahead.

Anthony Sines (Cameraman) - As of this moment I have only seen the promo on the ABC site but the film work is beautiful... in fact it looks cinematic. You have no idea as he is taking shots what he sees, but when the editor crafts his shots the results are very picturesque. I really felt privileged to warrant such hard work to make the episode look so good. On top of this, both Anthony and Marc the sound man never seemed to get in the way of the story. Whenever we did segments we never lost momentum. There was no retakes as far as I can remember and the directions were always easy to work with... it is truly amazing that such a polished package was delivered.

Marc Smith (Sound) - the quiet achiever of the team. Marc was always on the ball. It seemed like half the time he was anticipating Anthony's shots so as to get the best quality sound while staying just out of shot. Even though sound men are artists in their own right, the way they work in with everyone and support them makes a good soundy indispensable and the whole project run so much smoother. Marc also happens to be a desert dirt bike rider so we didn't get to rave on about bikes until the last day since he really kept a low key over the two months.


PEOPLE THAT SHOULD BE MENTIONED

Fred and Helen Richardson (Ric's parents)
Sky Richardson (Ric's 2nd brother and manager of his incubation company)
Lily Richardson (Ric and Karen's daughter)
Craig Etchegoyen (Ric's business partner and good friend in the states who represents Ric's interests)
Brad Davis (CEO of Uniloc and friend)
The Uniloc team

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