Kim Richards

Kim Richards possesses over 30 years of experience and a distinguished history of accomplishments in the music, film and television industries. He has earned more than 100 gold, platinum and diamond records, as well as numerous Grammy and Emmy nominations. Chief among his credits is Pink Floyd's "The Wall," which has been certified diamond at 23 million copies, making it the third highest grossing album of all time, behind only the Eagles Greatest Hits and Michael Jackson's Thriller. Richards' video productions have won at both the New York and Cannes Film Festivals.

Richards' career in the music industry began during his early teens, when the sound engineers at the Greek Theater (Los Angeles) were so impressed with his skills and eagerness that they arranged for a union waiver that permitted him to become the youngest sound engineer to work at the Greek. Richards later became one of the industry's youngest Y-1 union sound mixers ever admitted to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE, Local 695).

In the 1970's, while simultaneously working towards his undergraduate and law degrees, Richards worked in Artist Development and Productions at RSO Records, leaving for CBS Records in 1979. On loan from CBS, he became Special (music) Projects Producer in 1981 for ABC Television in Hollywood. In 1983, Richards began his association with Allied Artists, as Vice President of Productions. He was rapidly promoted and by 1987, Richards was named Chairman and CEO of Allied.

Richards is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and has held advisory positions with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM). As a member of the RIAA technology committee, Richards helped establish the standards for, and introduction of Compact Discs. At the time, industry insiders were reluctant to displace traditional vinyl records by introducing a radically different technology (digital) that required completely new hardware. Detractors argued that cassettes had all but destroyed the sale of 8 tracks and that the small size of CD's reduced consumer shelf visibility. Richards and a narrow majority of his fellow advisory board members successfully argued that CD's were a necessary technological advance that must be embraced by the industry.