Richard Morris

Richard Morris worked for 45 years with carriers, manufacturers, shippers and service and infrastructure providers in aviation, transportation and related industries in both the public and private sectors. He completed assignments involving strategic planning, operational improvement, capacity expansion, market research, and organizational and operational restructuring. After earning a B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Tennessee and a M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University, he began his professional career in Santiago, Chile in 1967, first as a technical advisor in the Chile-California Program and then as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse Peat, after which he returned to Stanford to complete a Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering with emphasis in transportation planning.

Ph.D. in hand, he joined Systan, Inc. and carried out a two-year assignment to do the economic analysis for a port master plan in Jakarta, Indonesia, followed by a year in El Salvador on the Central American Transport Plan, four years in San Jose, Costa Rica, managing the preparation of a national transport plan and three years back in California working on domestic projects. He spent a year in Saudi Arabia analyzing transport sector user charges, after which he joined the transportation practice of the international consulting firm Arthur D. Little in Boston. He served both international and domestic clients, including a number of projects for the Logistics Department of the U.S. Postal Service. To bolster its aviation practice, ADL acquired the aviation consulting firm R Dixon Speas Associates and named Dr. Morris president of the consulting subsidiary. He was also became a vice-president of the parent firm. When ADL encountered financial difficulties, the transportation practice was down-sized, and Dr. Morris acquired the R Dixon Speas Associates subsidiary. He owned the company and served as its president for 23 years until he closed it and retired in 2023.