Richard Chandler heads his own management consulting firm, R. H. Chandler Company, specializing in strategic redirection and organizational development. He also serves as an adjunct professor at UC-Irvine's Graduate School of Management, where he teaches new venture management, corporate strategy, and business dynamics.
Chandler's 35 year career in management began with functional experience in marketing, finance, and business development, followed by 28 years in general management positions, the last 23 as a CEO of three growth companies. Most recently, he formed Freedom Scientific in early 2000 by raising $65 million in venture capital and debt financing and acquiring three assistive technology companies. He served as Freedom's CEO for three years and is currently a director of this manufacturer of software and hardware products for people who are blind or have learning disabilities.
From 1983 to 1999, Chandler served as chairman and CEO of Sunrise Medical, which he founded with venture backing and took public in 1983. Sunrise grew to become one of the world's leading manufacturers of rehabilitation and home care products, with sales of $675 million and a NYSE listing.
Chandler was CEO of Abbey Medical, a nationwide retail supplier of rehabilitation and home health care products, from 1979 to 1982. He and co-investors acquired Abbey from Sara Lee Corporation in July,1979 and sold it to American Hospital Supply Corporation (now Baxter) two years later. Abbey subsequently became part of Apria, Inc. (NYSE)
From 1974 to 1979, Chandler held various executive positions at Sara Lee, including vice president of corporate development and planning, president of the Abbey Medical/Abbey Rents division, and group vice president of diversified products, responsible for eight divisions and five thousand employees. He began his career with Bell and Howell Company in Chicago, where he moved through a variety of management positions including vice president of marketing of DeVry Inc., its education subsidiary.
Chandler has played an active role with other organizations. In 1971, he was founder and vice chairman of Chicago Community Ventures, an SBIC investment company devoted to minority-owned enterprises that was funded by 17 major Chicago corporations. In 1972, he was selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of Chicago. Chandler was recognized as San Diego's Entrepreneur of the Year in 1995 and the following year received the Diogenes Award from the Public Relations Society of America (San Diego Chapter) for exemplary investor communications by a public company CEO. He is a former member of the American Business Conference and Young Presidents' Organization, and is a current member of World Presidents' Organization.
Chandler earned his B.A. degree magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1964, an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago in 1966, and a Masters in International Economics with distinction from the University of Louvain (Belgium) in 1967. He resides in Rancho Santa Fe, California with his wife, Linda Boerner Chandler. They have been married 38 years and have three adult daughters.
August, 2003
