RICHARD "RICHIE" BLACKFORD

Richard was born in Kingston, Jamaica where he attended Kingston College, and Camperdown High School. He has had a long and distinguished career in business, entrepreneurship, and team building; skills which he now focuses on Yaawd Media Incorporated.

Richard moved to the USA in 2008 with the intention of finding not only better opportunities, but to pursue a course of development derived from combining both his artistic and business skills. He started Yardabraawd International LLC in 2016, a business centered around taking advantage of the Brand Jamaica concept as well as monetizing Jamaica’s rich history in the creation of popular music, especially the island’s flagship Reggae music.

Yaawd Media Incorporated was a natural outgrowth of the Yardabraawd concept, focusing on documenting and archiving the stories behind Jamaica’s rich music history and presenting these as video streamed content to a global audience. The increased global use of technological platforms provided further opportunities to package aspects of Jamaica’s largely influential culture for consumption by its ever-expanding Diaspora audience as well as providing a portal that presents story-driven content that amplifies “the best of Jamaica” and making those stories available to people everywhere who have an interest in the island.

Richard holds a Certificate in Marketing from the College of Arts, Science & Technology (now UTECH), a Bachelor of Science in Management Studies (Honors) from the University of the West Indies, Mona, and a Master of Science in Education from the University of Phoenix, AZ.