LDC Top 50 2026
Richard Wallace
CEO
LCM Environmental Services
Growing up on a council estate in Northern Ireland, Richard Wallace never imagined he’d one day lead one of the UK’s fastest-growing critical infrastructure businesses. “I dropped out of school at 17,” he says. He joined the Royal Marines, serving for 27 years before leaving as a Lieutenant Colonel.
In 2017, he joined Yorkshire-based LCM Environmental (formerly Craggs Environmental) as project director, later becoming CEO. Since then, the business has grown from five employees to 167, with turnover rising from £1 million to £32 million. “People think military leadership is about shouting orders but the Marines taught me the opposite. Everyone has a part to play. We’re one team.”
People think military leadership is about shouting orders but the Marines taught me the opposite. Everyone has a valuable part to play. We’re one team.”
Q&A
Why did you leave a career you loved?
People assume leaving the Marines must have been an easy decision once I’d done 27 years but it wasn’t. I loved it. Deployments are addictive because it’s what you’ve trained your whole life to do. The turning point came when we had children. I realised that staying would have been selfish. I didn’t want to be the absent father and husband.
What have you brought from the military into business?
One of the biggest things is the importance of training. In the Marines, every promotion came with another course; I’ve even completed a aster’s degree. What surprised me after leaving was how often people are expected to step into bigger roles in business with no formal training at all. We’ve taken the opposite approach at LCM. Last year we delivered around 1,800 hours of training across the business, from field teams to office staff.
What motivates you?
When I left the Marines, my biggest fear was that I’d get bored. In the military you change jobs every couple of years, so you’re constantly learning. I worried I’d get itchy feet after 18 months in business. Instead, building LCM Environmental has given me exactly the same buzz. I still train four or five times a week because I genuinely believe in a healthy body and a healthy mind.
