Biography

Peter S. Richards

Peter Richards lived in West Seattle for over 20 years. He was raised as a West Seattle Hi-Yu baby when his Mother Doris Richards and her business parter, Warren Lawless ran the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival for many years. He attended school at Jefferson Elementary (now Jefferson Square), Genesee Hill Elementary, High School at John F Kennedy Memorial High School in Burien, and 2 years of college at Highline CC.

Peter was also raised in the Yellow Pages and jokes about yellow blood coursing through his veins. Starting as a delivery driver at NTD Publishing, Inc, and working his way up the corporate ladder, he later became the lead to computerize the production department of NTD. He eventually oversaw the entire business, sales and production technology of NTD Publishing.

Peter served from 1989 to 1997 as manager and eventually CIO of NTD Publishing, Inc., d/b/a Banana Pages (formerly known as West Seattle Associates, Inc. and Neighborhood Telephone Directories, Inc.).  In 1995, with his brother John Richards he developed and launched the first-ever online Yellow Pages derived from an offline print product.  He then formed an Internet company, Yellow Pages on the Internet, LLC (YPI), to consolidate the Yellow Pages industry on the Web.  InfoSpace acquired YPI in 1997.  Peter consulted for InfoSpace after the acquisition and then joined InfoSpace full-time after selling NTD in late 1997.

Peter was the technological drive behind three Gold Book Awards handed out through ADP.  He also oversaw the production group which earned the YPPA Best Yellow Pages Ad in the World award. He fully developed and implemented the Fax-O-Max system for NTD as well as a free "411" residential information service.

While at InfoSpace, Peter lead the advertising production group, which implemented the ad programs that brought in about 70% of the revenue generated by the company. His tenure at InfoSpace.com helped build the company into a $30 billion internet powerhouse.

Peter has remained very active in West Seattle, providing hosting and development solutions for the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, ArtsWest, the West Seattle Hi-Yu and WestSeattle.com.

7/31/2007