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Richie Harkham is a serial entrepreneur, winemaker and philanthropist whose life took a dramatic turn following a near-death motorbike accident in 2014. The crash shattered his left leg, leading to a four-year recovery involving eight operations, a life-changing knee transplant from a 14-year-old boy, and a serious golden staph infection. That experience became the foundation for his speaking career and his framework, Return On Resilience, a process he later co-developed into a white paper with a neuro resilience psychologist, designed to help individuals and organisations build and bank resilience daily so they can turn crisis into opportunity.
Richie’s business story began early. He started working in hospitality at age 15 and juggled entrepreneurial ventures alongside his studies, eventually completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Sydney, where he was invited to join the Golden Key International Honour Society. He went on to become a serial entrepreneur, co-owning businesses including Energy Alliance and The Australian College of Physical Education.
In 2005, Richie followed a family passion into the Hunter Valley, purchasing what became Harkham Wines. Winemaking runs deep in his family history, his grandmother Aziza made wine in Zichron Yaakov in Israel’s Carmel region after fleeing Iraq, using ancient techniques with no electricity, fermenting in terracotta pots buried underground. Richie has revived some of those same methods at Harkham Wines, producing a small, high-quality range that includes his Aziza’s label, now fully kosher with zero additives.
Following his accident, Richie was inspired to give back and founded the charity Hark Angel, named after the wine label he created specifically to fund the cause. Hark Angel has built 9 schools so far, part of an ongoing mission to build 100 schools in developing nations, already changing the lives of over 2,000 children. In the years since, Richie has become a source of support for others facing similar physical and mental trauma, channelling those conversations into the content he now shares on stage.
As a speaker, Richie combines his personal story of adversity and recovery with his entrepreneurial success to explore resilience, mental health, purpose and rapid change. He has delivered keynotes globally, including a widely praised session for Google that adapted in real time to a remote, multi-country audience across 14 countries. He is also host of the Return On Resilience podcast, interviewing entrepreneurs and thought leaders who have turned adversity into opportunity, and has appeared on the Tony Robbins podcast and Network Ten’s The Living Room with Dr Chris Brown.
