Business development

Fifteen years of building real client relationships and earning their business.
Creative production

Ten years running my own video studio for brands and causes I cared about.
AI adoption

Working with AI every day. Curious, hands-on, learning fast.
The territory

Where the next decade of work happens.

Move your cursor across the circles. Each one, the overlaps, and the centre tell a different part of the story.

Commercial

Discipline, pipeline, deals.

Strategic accounts, CRM, deal structuring, multi-stakeholder relationships. Years of selling premium products in long, complex sales cycles.

Creative

Direction, story, taste.

A decade running my own studio. Direction, editing, production. Brief reframes that find better answers than the brief itself asked for.

AI fluent

Front-running the shift.

Active engagement with frontier tools, daily experimentation, plugged into the leading curators. Translating what works into client conversations and creative output.

The full triangle

This is where I want to be.

Commercial discipline, creative craft, AI fluency, all in one role. The territory where the next ten years of work will be most valuable. If your role lives here, let's talk.

Ric Toone

Business development

Fifteen years of building real client relationships and earning their business.

Creative production

Ten years running my own video studio for brands and causes I cared about.

AI adoption

Working with AI every day. Curious, hands-on, learning fast.

01 About

A bit about me.

Ric Toone
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Ric Toone

I’ve spent my career pursuing growth through strategic relationships and client services.

Six years as a Territory Manager at Johnson & Johnson, owning a £2.4m annual portfolio and consistently top five of around thirty reps. Built relationships with surgeons, procurement leads, and clinical educators that led to multi-year NHS contract wins, including the £2m King’s College Hospital tender (over two years). Promoted into J&J Medical Devices’ first Digital Marketing Manager role and completed a Diploma in Digital Marketing. In that role I worked with leaders across J&J business units on bringing digital practice into UK marketing and field sales activity.

I founded Videobop, my own production studio, and ran it for ten years. Pitching against London agencies and earning the trust of established brands across charity, retail, healthcare, and the public sector. I took good care of a long list of clients over the years; the headliners were NHS (various teams and departments), Macmillan Cancer Support (preferred supplier), BBC, Johnson & Johnson, and many more. A hands-on role owning every part of the creative, technical, and strategic delivery of contemporary video.

I have a degree in Psychology and I’m now based in Saffron Walden.

Brands I’ve worked with
Marks & SpencerM&S Johnson & JohnsonJohnson & Johnson DanoneDanone PracedoPracedo DansacDansac Stem4Stem4 Macmillan Cancer SupportMacmillan BBCBBC HaysHays NHSNHS Trafalgar ToursTrafalgar Tours Waltham ForestWaltham Forest HertsHerts MallMall Com ClinicsCom Clinics Wood Street WallsWood Street Walls ClientAsset 9 ClientAsset 15 Marks & SpencerM&S Johnson & JohnsonJohnson & Johnson DanoneDanone PracedoPracedo DansacDansac Stem4Stem4 Macmillan Cancer SupportMacmillan BBCBBC HaysHays NHSNHS Trafalgar ToursTrafalgar Tours Waltham ForestWaltham Forest HertsHerts MallMall Com ClinicsCom Clinics Wood Street WallsWood Street Walls ClientAsset 9 ClientAsset 15
02 Track record

Career & selected outcomes.

Click any role to expand

2025 - 2026 Business Development Manager Comar Optics

Set up the business development function from scratch at a specialist UK precision optics manufacturer, across healthcare, life sciences, and imaging. Strategy and rolling-up-sleeves selling, side by side.

  • Built the BD function end to end, from positioning to outreach, discovery, and qualifying
  • Set up Pipedrive CRM and made it the team's single source of truth for sales
  • Built a multi-million pound pipeline of around 20 opportunities worth £20K to £300K a year each. A few have already converted; most are deep in the long technical conversations that come with optics, and well placed to land
  • Ran each opportunity from first contact through to close
  • Translated complex engineering specs into clear language clients could buy with confidence
  • Brought customer priorities and market signals back to the business to help shape what came next
2014 - 2025 Founder, Creative Director Videobop

Founded my own production studio after voluntary redundancy from Johnson & Johnson. Built it from zero, grew it over a decade, and ran it end-to-end across pitching, scoping, direction, filming, editing, and delivery.

  • Won and delivered consistent annual business through marketing, networking, and asking better questions in pitches
  • Became a key supplier for several clients, including preferred supplier status with Macmillan Cancer Support
  • Won pitches regularly against established London agencies
  • Delivered for NHS departments, BBC, M&S, Age UK, Stem4, Johnson & Johnson, Waltham Forest Council, and many more
  • Contributed to Waltham Forest's successful London Borough of Culture bid
  • Range covered emotional storytelling, documentary, how-to content, and event films
  • Kept learning and kept levelling up what I could offer
See the NHS mural case study →
2012 - 2014 Digital Marketing Manager Ethicon, Johnson & Johnson

I was promoted into J&J Medical Devices’ first Digital Marketing Manager role after presenting a digital strategy to senior management. The role focused on bringing structured digital practice into UK Medical Devices alongside the existing field sales motion, while I completed a Diploma in Digital Marketing at IDM London.

  • Created a strategic roadmap for digital transformation within J&J UK Medical Devices, establishing a new database for opt-in, multichannel marketing activities across a network of UK customers
  • Created a closed colorectal network connecting surgeons across the UK to discuss cases
  • Chaired the cross-functional Digital Innovation Group, bringing teams together and pushing change through
  • Adapted the new global website for the EMEA region so it actually fit local markets
  • Set up a digital council to keep thinking aligned across business units
  • Tailored Salesforce for the field sales team
  • Oversaw the content move onto new responsive sites
  • Worked with creative agencies on product microsites and branded content
  • Researched and presented digital marketing thinking to senior leaders
2006 - 2012 Territory Manager Ethicon, Johnson & Johnson

Consultative sales role for surgical devices across NHS and private hospitals in London. Built the relationships and commercial discipline that have shaped every role since.

  • Won Region of the Year 2007 (sales vs annual target)
  • Excellence Club 2007 and 2009: hitting ten consecutive quarterly and monthly targets
  • Secured the £2m King’s College Hospital NHS Trust contract (two-year contract) after two years of relationship building
  • Plus long-term contracts at Chelsea & Westminster, Royal Brompton, Royal Marsden, and Mayday. King’s was the headline of a broader portfolio, not an isolated win
  • Led UK product launches for Single Site Laparoscopy and Echelon Flex
  • Top 5 of around 30 territory managers, consistently
  • Took surgeons and nurses to training facilities in Cincinnati and Hamburg
  • Hosted US executives and introduced them to UK key opinion leaders
  • Ran training, product evaluations, and supply chain coordination across hospitals
Earlier Recruitment, team management Various

The roles that shaped how I think about people, performance, and motivation.

  • Three years at The Listening Company in Richmond, telemarketing across UK brand campaigns including BUPA, O2, Orange and Sainsbury’s
  • Promoted from junior to team manager, leading teams of around 10 routinely and up to 100 on larger campaigns
  • One year at Prime Time Recruitment in the Park Lane flagship office, recruiting salespeople, before being headhunted into Johnson & Johnson

Education

  • Psychology BSc, Staffordshire University
  • Diploma in Digital Marketing, Institute of Digital Marketing, London
03 Videobop

A decade of work, one deep dive.

Ten years founder and creative director at Videobop. One project below told properly, with two more selected projects after it.

Sectors covered
Charity & cause-led NHS & healthcare Public sector Higher education Retail (M&S) Pharmaceutical Travel & tourism Tech Food & drink Mental health Documentary Events
Case study

A wall in Leytonstone, fourteen professions, one community.

NHS North East London came to me with a recruitment problem and a plan to fix it with one social media video. I came back with a permanent mural in the centre of the borough, painted over ten days with the people who actually do the jobs.

NHS Allied Health Professionals mural in Leytonstone
Add image as case-mural.jpg
Client
NHS North East London
Sector
Public sector, healthcare recruitment
Brief
Recruit Allied Health Professionals across fourteen disciplines from local communities
My role
Strategy, direction, production, stakeholder management, community engagement
Outputs
Permanent mural, social video, press coverage, on-site interviews, AHP-led content
01

The brief

A single social media video to recruit Allied Health Professionals across fourteen NHS disciplines, targeting local people who hadn't yet considered a clinical career.

02

The reframe

A video on its own wouldn't land. The audience lived locally, scrolled past social all day, and didn't think of themselves as future clinicians. They needed something they could touch, talk about, and walk past.

03

The solution

A large-scale public mural in the centre of Leytonstone, painted over ten days. I sourced the wall, secured permissions and additional funding from the council, and partnered with a local artist. Real AHPs from all fourteen disciplines were filmed at the site for social, with local press invited.

04

The outcome

A multi-layered campaign that lived on social, in local press, in community conversations, and physically on the wall. Awareness of AHP careers grew. The mural still stands in East London today.

Also at Videobop
Language and Cancer campaign frame
Macmillan Cancer Support

Language and Cancer

A montage of people affected by cancer reading aloud the awkward, well-meaning and sometimes startling things friends and family say to them. The concept I devised, the people I directed on the day. Picked up by the BBC and featured on BBC Breakfast.

Will and legacy donation campaign frame
Macmillan Cancer Support

Will / legacy donation campaign

A social campaign encouraging people to leave a donation in their Will. The concept I developed was a sequence of uninspiring, meaningless gifts contrasted with statements about the importance of Macmillan’s work. When tested, it outperformed every other social ad Macmillan had ever created.

04 AI

Leading with AI.

I’m not waiting to see how AI lands. I’m working through structured courses, experimenting with new tools week by week, and following the people building the field. AI is an opportunity, not a threat. A way to automate the routine, work better, faster, and smarter, and unlock new creative ground along the way.

01

Structured learning

Working through courses week by week. Building knowledge systematically rather than picking up scraps as they pass.

02

Hands-on with the tools

Experimenting daily across the stack. Trialing what looks useful, dropping what doesn’t, and bringing what works back to the work.

03

Opportunity, not threat

Automation for the routine, leverage for the strategic, and freedom to make better creative work with the time it gives back.

05 Core capabilities

What I bring to my next role.

A1
New business & strategic accounts

I build accounts from a blank market map through to a closed deal. Pipeline, forecasting, and CRM (introduced Pipedrive end-to-end at Comar; Salesforce daily as a Territory Manager at J&J, then customised for the field sales team in my Digital Marketing role). Multi-year NHS contract wins, top 5 of c.30 UK Territory Managers, and a decade of pitch wins running my own studio.

A2
Consultative selling & solution shaping

Asking better questions, listening properly, and shaping a response that solves the actual problem. The brief is a starting point, never the answer. The NHS mural came from a video brief. The J&J digital transformation came from a sales role.

A3
Multi-stakeholder relationships

Reputation is everything to me, and it shapes how I look after clients. Long partnerships built on listening, with surgeons, engineers, brand directors, social teams, procurement leads, and senior leaders. Trust earns repeat business and quiet referrals.

A4
Future thinking

Hands-on with AI, automation, and the new wave of digital tools. Following the people building the field, trying what looks useful, and bringing what works back into client conversations and creative work.

A5
Composure under pressure

Held nerve in operating theatres at J&J, talking surgeons through step-by-step product use during live procedures. Managed Videobop shoots end to end with crew, talent, and clients on a single day, balancing health and safety, schedule, and creative quality. Calm under fire is a transferable muscle, not a personality trait.

A6
Immersive learning

Strong track record of ramping fast on a new domain through sustained focus. Taught myself the full creative production craft at Videobop from zero, and am doing the same with AI tooling now.

06 Contact

Recruiting for the right role?
Let's talk.

Email
ric@videobop.com
Phone
07917 110064
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/rictoone