Richard Allan

archaeo/techno/politico

Richard Allan has spent half his career working in the public sector (healthcare and politics), and the other half working in the private sector (internet hardware and social media).

He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and a member of the House of Lords (the second chamber of the UK Parliament).

Richard has worked on most of the "hot" technology policy issues including privacy and data use, content regulation, the conduct of politics online, competition, tax and connectivity.

Richard studied archaeology and he has worked as an excavator on ancient sites in a number of countries.

Richard also has an MSc in Information Technology and he spent several years building information systems for the UK's National Health Service.

Richard began his political career in 1993 as a local councillor and he was elected to the UK Parliament in 1997.

Richard stepped down from Parliament in 2005 and moved to the technology sector, working at Cisco Systems (2005-9) and Facebook Inc (2009-2019).