Rik started his forestry career in the Lake District, working in a tree nursery, large estates and contracting companies, learning the required skills ‘on the tools’.
He studied silviculture at the National School of Forestry, Newton Rigg, near Penrith before moving to the southeast and was employed by Economic Forestry Group, a large forest management company, where he worked his way up to area manager.
He then moved to their landscape subsidiary, Genkirk Ltd, to help develop and expand their activities. However he soon realised that he would rather be in the forest, as opposed to the urban environment and left to create his own forestry contracting and consulting company Chiltern Forestry Ltd.
He ran this single-handedly for several decades, utilising contractors with specific skills as required.
In 2016 he decided to sell, and after extensive research, chose Maydencroft Limited as his preferred partner.