Catherine Richards

Catherine’s postdoctoral research at CSER, Cambridge, focused on developing our understanding of global risks, governance mechanisms and technical solutions in relation to complex critical infrastructure systems. Her work primarily spanned environmental risks, future foods biotechnology and artificial intelligence alongside complementary digital technologies across the water, energy and food sectors as well as the transport, waste and space sectors.

Catherine completed her PhD in Engineering at Cambridge on energy transition, climate change and agri-food supply chain risk. She also holds a BEng(Civ) and BEng(Env), both with First Class Honours, Dean’s Medal and University Medal, from University of Newcastle, Australia.

Catherine is now a management consultant at a top tier firm serving investors, corporates and startups in the real asset space (natural resources, infrastructure, real estate and related material supply chains) on strategy, transactions and sustainability. She leverages 10+ years’ industry experience at the intersection of real assets, technology and sustainability, having previously advised climate tech startups, dappled in real estate and proptech, and worked as an engineer at a top Fortune 500 company in the energy sector and government corporation in the water sector.

Catherine has been published in the Nature portfolio, is a John Monash Scholar and was recognised in Forbes 30 Under 30 for Industry Innovation.