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ACUDr Richard Piper — no licensed photograph is available, so the sector leader plate is shown instead.

Sector leader

Dr Richard Piper

Chief Executive, Alcohol Change UK

Alcohol Change UK is based in Islington South and Finsbury (London) — the organisation’s base, not a personal address.

Press citations

1

Topic

1

Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Last quoted

Aug 2026

Dr Richard Piper: key facts

Kind of voice
Sector leader
Role
Chief Executive
Organisation
Alcohol Change UK
Organisation based in
Islington South and Finsbury
Quoted on
Hospital discharge / bed-blocking
Tracked press citations
1
Most recently quoted
27 Aug 2026

Who Dr Richard Piper is

Dr Richard Piper has been Chief Executive of Alcohol Change UK since September 2017, having previously worked for Mencap, NCVO and Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity and provided consultancy to charities across the UK. Alcohol Change UK is a registered charity formed from the merger of Alcohol Concern and Alcohol Research UK in 2017–18, whose mission is to reduce alcohol harm in the UK and which is best known for running the Dry January challenge. Piper holds a PhD in Identity and Organisational Culture from UCL. He has publicly advocated for higher alcohol duties — arguing that reintroducing a duty escalator would raise revenue and reduce alcohol-related pressure on the NHS — and for treating alcohol harm as a broad public-health issue affecting drinkers across the consumption spectrum, not only those with dependency.

“Sadly these findings are not a surprise and mirror our own studies on the widespread nature of alcohol harm across the drinking spectrum.”

References for this biography

  1. 1.Our staff | Alcohol Change UK — Confirms Piper's role as Chief Executive, start date of September 2017, and prior employers (Mencap, NCVO, Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity)
  2. 2.Press release: Public wants higher alcohol duties to save the NHS | Alcohol Change UK — Evidences Piper's public policy advocacy on alcohol duty and NHS funding (2024)
  3. 3.Press release: Alcohol Change UK announces headline partner and official partners for 2025 Dry January challenge — Confirms Piper's role as CEO and documents Dry January growth figures (2019–2024)
  4. 4.Contact – Press & General Enquiries | Alcohol Change UK — Confirms organisation's registered London office address: Unit 7, FBC Clerkenwell, 40 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0NE
  5. 5.Dr Richard Piper – Top 100 Influential People — Corroborates Piper's career history and near-three-decade span in the non-profit sector
  6. 6.Richard Piper (@RichardCPiper) / X — Confirms X account self-identifies as CEO of Alcohol Change UK

Notable achievements

  • Led Alcohol Change UK's Dry January campaign to reach 8.5 million people planning to participate in 2024, more than double the 4.2 million recorded in 2019. Source ↗
  • Publicly called on the UK Government ahead of the 2024 Budget to reintroduce an alcohol duty escalator at 2–4% above inflation, citing polling showing majority public support for using duty rises to fund the NHS. Source ↗
  • Steered the charity's development of the Try Dry app, which had over 530,000 downloads and reduced average user alcohol consumption from 35.8 to 5.6 units per week over six months. Source ↗

Where Dr Richard Piper has been quoted

  1. One in four UK people fear a loved one drinks too much, survey findstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Related media coverage

Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.

Contact & links

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.

Chief executives, directors and spokespeople of trade bodies, representative associations and charities speaking for the sector. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 5 Oct 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.