Richard Muller

Chief Collaboration Officer

Richard Muller Headshot

Richard Muller is the Principal of Sum Things Ventured, a private equity and management consulting firm focused on mission-based organizations and social enterprises. He brings thirty years of marketing, business development and strategic planning experience to clients across a range of sectors, including retail, tourism, technology and financial services. He is also an Advisor to GrantBook, a managed services provider to foundations and other grant-making organizations in both Canada and the United States.

Prior to founding his current company, Richard held a number of senior management positions for over ten years across North America with Young & Rubicam (Y&R), a leading global advertising and communications firm. His business units provided customer relationship management, loyalty marketing and analytics services to clients such as Microsoft, Sprint, and Aetna. He began his stint with Y&R after he and a group of partners sold their database marketing company to the agency in 1999. Before that, Richard had also successfully started and managed a marketing research company, serving the needs of community-based financial institutions across Canada.


An MBA graduate from the University of Western Ontario and a BA graduate from the University of British Columbia, Richard has been interested and involved throughout his career in increasing the amount of both individual and institutional capital committed to impact investing. He helped launch Ethical Funds across the Canadian credit union system to provide members with a socially-responsible investment alternative to conventional mutual funds. He has also worked directly with portfolio companies funded by the VanCity Community Foundation operated by VanCity Savings Credit Union, one of the largest community-based financial institutions in the world.