Richard Alden (born 1963) is a British entrepreneur who was the founding director of Spanish telecommunications operator ONO and chief executive of communications operator Wananchi Group in

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

. Alden is currently the president of parcel delivery startup Citibox.

Career

Alden began his career as a chartered accountant at

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

, one of the " Big Four" accounting firms, and in 1996, was a senior manager in audit and corporate finance.

ONO

Alden became the founding director of Spanish cable and telecom firm ONO in 1998, and its CEO from 2000 to 2009, when he left the firm. In 2014, ONO was acquired by the British telecommunications company

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

for $10 billion and the ONO brand was completely retired in early 2019.

Later career

In 2010, Alden was appointed non-executive chairman of Mirada, a Spanish TV production firm specialising in

audiovisual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service provide ...

content interaction. That same year, he was also named president of European operations of SaaS-systems provider TOA Technologies. Alden joined Brazil's Blue Interactive as

non-executive chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

in 2011. Subsequently, he worked as non-executive vice chairman of Euskaltel SA in Spain, then joined Kenyan pay TV company Wananchi Group in 2013 as CEO. He left the group in November 2015. Since 2019, Alden has been the president of Madrid-based delivery startup Citibox, raising €11 million.

Personal life

Alden is married and divides his time between Lisbon, Madrid and Cape Town. After the end of his contract with Wananchi, Alden was charged with

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

, following the death of Kenyan national Grace Wangechi Kinyanjui on 6 June 2016 at his Nairobi home. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and was

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal means that the criminal prosecution has failed to prove that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charge presented. It certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an o ...

of all charges by the Kenyan Courts on 30 October 2017, following independent

ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and acceler ...

evidence that proved Kinyanjui had mishandled a gun and accidentally shot herself. Alden had rushed her to the hospital, where she later died.

References

*Sunday Times, 3 December 2017, page 5, 'White Mischief' murder suspect freed after top sleuth traces bouncing bullet, Nicholas Hellen, Social Affairs Editor *The Sun onLine, 3 December 2017 *The Mail on Line, 3 December 2017 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alden, Richard Living people British chief operating officers British chief executives 1963 births