A new Director of Growth has been appointed to help ATG Group achieve further expansion across Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland.
Richard Craythorne, who has 30 years of sales and business development experience, will help the company at a crucial time as we experience growth.
Father-of-two, Richard gained a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Dundee.
After graduating, Richard started his career with international healthcare company Randox during its early years. He started in research and development at its Northern Ireland HQ before helping the company set up its purchasing department.
“During this time, I had to search for and evaluate trusted suppliers. After my initial six years, I got the chance to go and do a Masters in the States, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which I did,” says Richard, who is married to Susan.
On returning to Northern Ireland in 2002, Richard returned to Randox and helped with the international launch of a diagnostic testing machine for labs, the Evidence Investigator.
Global sales and growth
Richard explains, “Twenty years later, that machine is still being used all over the world. I took it from prototype in the engineering department and chaired the strategy group that carried out the R&D, marketing and sales. I was involved in the whole go-to-market strategy and building the initial sales team.”
This meant Richard spent many years travelling globally. And with two young children, he decided to look for work that didn’t involve so much time away from home.
After several years at a distributor for a medical technology company, Richard was headhunted as Director of Sales for NASDAQ-listed Irish company Trinity Biotech.
With worldwide sales of $100 million, Richard directed all sales outside of USA, building a team of 5 Regional Managers from Bogota to Bangkok, and launching the business in many new territories, including the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe.
Following this Richard spent 5 years heading up a £20M segment of Tekni-Plex’s MedTech EMEA & APAC business. After the Covid pandemic, the company merged several divisions and offered Richard the chance to move again.
“They offered me to move to be based in Germany, but with my children, I didn’t want to do that, so I took redundancy and became a business coach with Action Coach,” says Richard, who has a daughter, Tammy, and son, Joshua.
Director of Growth
It was while Richard was working alongside leadership and coaching company LCP Global that he was introduced to ATG Group.
“I was talking to Mark, ATG’s Managing Director, and he invited me to start work with ATG Group’s charity partner Ashes to Gold,” he says.
“I’ve been working with Ashes to Gold for several months. Mark then asked me about becoming a Director of Growth at ATG Group. My remit is building a business development team and build-out sales. Initially it was for Northern Ireland, but the Republic of Ireland is now in my responsibility.”
Richard joins the company just months after Nick Ashworth was recruited as Director of Growth & Operations for the Great Britain arm of ATG Group.
Welcome to ATG Group
Managing Director Mark McKinney welcomed Richard to the team.
He says, “Richard joins us at an exciting time. We grew by 25% in 2025 and beat our first quarter sales targets for 2026 within two months. For us to sustain this impressive growth, we need to invest in sales and business development.
“Richard has a wealth of experience and knowledge in sales and growth across a wide range of sectors. This will be of immense benefit to ATG Group.
“It also comes at a time when we are becoming known for our experience and knowledge of remediating land contaminated with PFAS chemicals. As we expect increasing enquiries, it is the perfect time to welcome Richard. He will help us put everything in place to ensure this translates into increasing sales.”
If you would like to speak to Richard, use our contact us page today.
