John Winterson Richards

John Winterson Richards (born 1964) is a Welsh entrepreneur, writer, and former local councillor.
Biography
Born in , Cardiff, he is the son of the late Alun Thomas Richards, a solicitor, and the late Patricia Winterson Richards, an antiques dealer. He was awarded a Bachelor of Laws (Ll.B) degree by the University of Bristol, where he was resident at Wills Hall, and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST). He also attended courses at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
He was Captain of the 1985 Bristol University Challenge Team.
He held his first company directorship at 19, and at 22 founded a consultancy specialising in small business.
He is the author of The Bluffer’s Guide to Small Business and The Xenophobe’s Guide to the Welsh, published by Oval Books. These two books have between them been reprinted twenty times in English and have been translated into eight other languages.
After twenty years in print, The Bluffer's Guide to Small Business was substantially revised and republished as The Bluffer's Guide to Your Own Business in July, 2013. At the same time he acted as editor of the revised Bluffer's Guide to Management, to which he had contributed previously.
He is also the author of How to Build Your Own Pyramid: A Practical Guide to Organisational Structures for Managers and co-author, with Andrew Harman, of The Context of Christ: The History and Politics of Judea and Rome, 100 BC - 33 AD.
Public life
In 1986, aged 22, he won a by-election for the seat of Lisvane and Old St Mellons on Cardiff City Council, becoming the youngest member of that Council. Six months later he was promoted to Shadow Chairman of the City’s Economic Development Committee, then under the Chairmanship of Alun Michael, MP.
He eventually rose to become, at the age of 31, the last Leader of the Opposition on the City Council before Local Government Reorganisation. He played an important role in lobbying for that Reorganisation, which established unitary authorities throughout Wales.
He was the only Conservative elected to the new Cardiff County Council in 1995.
He also stood as a Conservative and Unionist in the Rhondda, the safest Labour seat in the country, in the 1992 General Election. He was not elected but retained his deposit.
His last act in public life was to campaign successfully for the establishment of separate wards of Lisvane and Old St Mellons. Although adopted for the safe Conservative seat of Lisvane, in 1999 he decided to let his membership of the Conservative Party lapse and not to stand for the Council again.
In 2004, he co-founded Cardiff Independent Citizens as a vehicle for those wishing to stand for the Council as Independents.
In 2014, he published If It Ain't Broke: The Case Against Constitutional Reform of the United Kingdom.[http://www.amazon.co.uk/IF-AINT-BROKE-Against-Constitutional-ebook/dp/B00MPLST50/refsr_1_3?ieUTF8&qid1409367574&sr8-3&keywords=john+winterson+richards]

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