Donald Cline

Richmond has much to thank for Donald’s entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to get stuck into things, for alongside his own substantial business commitments over the years, he has helped launch and nurture some of the town’s most successful and high-profile social enterprises.

A well-known personality in the area, and one who has cleverly remained outside the arena of local politics, Donald brings inventiveness, unique vision and commercial acumen to every project; the creation of Richmond’s first Community Interest Company being no exception.

He came to Richmond almost 50 years ago to open the town’s first and only independent bookshop with his wife Nina, taking to fulfilling third party orders by mail worldwide when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was still at primary school! Valued by many as a positive ‘hands on’ operator, and always ahead of the curve in his ideas and aspirations for the town, he is credited with championing the redevelopment of The Station building, now a flagship community resource and tourist destination.

More recently, the former radio producer has served as one of the volunteer coordinators for Richmond Information Centre in the Market Hall, the success of which got him thinking about forming a CIC that could make a real and positive difference to the residents of his beloved town.