Richard Marshall MBE Recognised in The King’s New Year Honours 2026

An MBE That Recognises More Than Business Growth

The official government citation is important because it makes clear that Richard Marshall’s MBE was not awarded simply for growing a successful barbering company. The Department for Business and Trade records the honour specifically for services to international trade, mentoring and people with dyslexia.

Those three areas tell the wider story of Richard’s career. International trade reflects the journey of taking a British barbering business beyond London and into New York. Mentoring reflects his increasing focus on helping other founders, entrepreneurs and people earlier in their careers. Support for people with dyslexia reflects something deeply personal: the difficulties Richard experienced from childhood and his decision later in life to speak openly about them rather than hide them.

The recognition therefore connects business achievement with responsibility. It acknowledges not only what Richard has built, but also how he has tried to use the experience gained along the way.

From Leaving School at 15 to National Recognition

Richard Marshall’s route into business did not follow a conventional academic path. He has spoken publicly about leaving school at 15 after struggling with severe dyslexia and entering working life without the formal qualifications that many people associate with future business leadership. He later described how practical learning, observation, persistence and asking other people for help became central to the way he developed.

His working life began around barbering, learning from the shop floor and gradually developing the craft and communication skills that would become the foundation of his career. The barber shop gave Richard a practical environment in which progress could be made through repetition, listening, and direct experience.

That beginning matters when looking at the MBE decades later. National recognition was not the result of a perfectly mapped career. It emerged from years of learning through work, making mistakes, asking questions, building relationships, and continuing when the route forward was not always obvious.

For Richard’s personal brand, that contrast is one of the most important parts of the story. A difficult experience in formal education did not determine the limits of what he could later build.

Building Pall Mall Barbers From the Barber Chair

Richard took over the original Pall Mall Barbers shop in London in 2005 and went on to lead the growth of the business across the capital and into New York, including Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Pall Mall Barbers’ current company profile identifies that London-to-New York expansion as a central part of his entrepreneurial journey.

The growth required Richard to move far beyond the technical side of barbering. Building a company meant learning about property, leases, teams, cash flow, marketing, operations, customer experience, international expansion and leadership.

It also meant navigating periods when growth was far from straightforward.

The business developed through economic change, difficult trading conditions and the enormous disruption caused by the pandemic. Like many entrepreneurs, Richard’s experience includes periods when the objective was not simply expanding but protecting what had already been built.

Those challenges became part of the knowledge he would later bring into mentoring, government business discussions and conversations with other entrepreneurs.

Taking British Barbering Into New York

International trade became an important part of Richard Marshall’s story as Pall Mall Barbers developed beyond London.

The business expanded into New York, establishing a presence at Rockefeller Center. That step required more than taking a British concept and placing it in another city. International expansion means entering a different commercial environment with its own regulations, operating structures, costs, client expectations, and competitive landscape.

The challenge is to understand what should remain consistent and what should adapt.

Richard’s international work subsequently contributed to wider recognition for Pall Mall Barbers, including export-related awards and involvement with the Department for International Trade. Pall Mall Barbers records previous recognition including a UK Board of Trade Award, Export Champion involvement and the RLI Global Rising Star Award connected with international growth.

The MBE takes that international journey to another level. It formally recognises Richard’s contribution to international trade as part of his service beyond the day-to-day operation of the business.

International Trade Became About Helping Other Businesses Think Bigger

Richard’s involvement in international trade increasingly became about more than expanding Pall Mall Barbers itself.

Having experienced the realities of entering the American market, he began contributing to wider conversations about what small and medium-sized British businesses need in order to grow internationally.

That experience matters because exporting can appear inaccessible to smaller businesses. Large corporations may have internal teams covering law, finance, compliance, logistics and international development. SMEs frequently operate with much smaller teams, meaning founders themselves need to understand multiple parts of the expansion process.

Richard’s experience provided a practical perspective: international growth requires ambition, but it also requires relationships, information, preparation and people willing to explain what they have already learned.

That philosophy has increasingly shaped his mentoring and public business work.

Representing SMEs Through the Small Business Council

Richard’s wider involvement in British enterprise has included membership of the UK Government’s Small Business Council, bringing practical entrepreneurial experience into discussions concerning the challenges facing SMEs. Pall Mall Barbers’ current profile highlights his role representing British barbering and small and medium-sized enterprises through this work.

The progression is significant.

Richard began his entrepreneurial journey having to ask other people how business ownership worked. Years later, he found himself in rooms where the future environment for small businesses was being discussed.

That does not mean one entrepreneur has all of the answers. It means lived experience can become useful when policymakers are trying to understand what business owners actually face.

For Richard, the issues are practical rather than theoretical. Hiring people, financing growth, managing costs, navigating property decisions, entering new markets, and surviving difficult periods are all realities he has encountered while building Pall Mall Barbers.

The MBE’s recognition of his work in mentoring and international trade sits naturally alongside that wider involvement.

Mentoring Became a Way to Pass Experience Forward

Mentoring is one of the three areas named directly in Richard Marshall’s official MBE citation, and it represents an important evolution in his career. After spending decades building a company, Richard understands that the most useful lessons do not come only from the decisions that worked. The difficult periods, the mistakes, the missed opportunities, the unexpected setbacks, and the moments when someone else opened a door can be just as valuable as the successes. Business is rarely a straight line, and experience often comes from learning what to do differently the next time.

For Richard, mentoring gives those experiences somewhere useful to go. It is not about telling another entrepreneur to copy the Pall Mall Barbers model or suggesting that one approach will work for every company, founder or market. Every business has its own challenges, timing and circumstances. The value of mentoring lies in helping someone think through a problem, recognise risks earlier, ask better questions and understand that setbacks are a normal part of building something over time.

Richard’s own journey makes that particularly relevant to people who may feel they do not have the traditional qualifications, network or background expected of a business leader. Having experienced what it means to learn through practical work, ask for help, make mistakes, and keep progressing, he is able to offer perspective grounded in real business experience rather than theory alone. Mentoring becomes a way of passing that experience forward, helping the next person move with a little more clarity and confidence.

Dyslexia Is Not a Footnote in Richard Marshall’s Story

The inclusion of people with dyslexia in Richard Marshall’s official MBE citation carries particular significance because dyslexia is not something he added to his public story after becoming successful. It has been part of his life from the beginning and has influenced the way he learned, worked, and approached challenges throughout his career.

Richard has spoken openly about struggling with reading and writing, feeling restricted within traditional educational environments and eventually learning that he needed to find different ways to process information, solve problems and progress.

As his career developed, Richard began to recognise that some of the adaptations he had built in response to those difficulties also influenced qualities that became valuable in business, including determination, creative thinking and practical problem-solving.

That does not mean dyslexia should be presented as an uncomplicated advantage. Richard has been clear that it created genuine difficulties and required him to find support and alternative approaches at different stages of his life. The more useful message is that difficulty and ability can exist at the same time.

Someone may struggle within one system of learning while performing strongly in a different environment. A person may need additional support with written information while demonstrating considerable strengths in practical problem-solving, visual thinking, communication or building relationships.

A young person may also leave education believing that academic results have already determined what they are capable of, only to discover later that their abilities are far broader than those results suggested.

Richard’s willingness to speak openly about his experience is one reason the MBE carries meaning beyond business achievement. His journey gives greater visibility to people who learn differently and reinforces the idea that struggling within a conventional educational system should not automatically be mistaken for a lack of potential.

The recognition of his work supporting people with dyslexia therefore connects his personal experience with a wider purpose: using what he has learned to help others see that there can be more than one route towards confidence, opportunity and achievement.

An Honour That Gives Dyslexia Greater Visibility

Public recognition can create visibility, and Richard Marshall’s MBE places dyslexia and different ways of learning within a wider conversation about achievement. When an entrepreneur is recognised partly for supporting people with dyslexia, it can help challenge the idea that academic difficulty or a different way of processing information automatically limits someone’s future. That visibility can matter to a young person who is struggling at school, to a founder who finds written reports more difficult to process, or to a parent trying to understand what a dyslexia diagnosis may mean for a child’s future.

Richard’s experience does not offer a universal answer to those challenges, nor does it suggest that everyone with dyslexia will follow the same path. What it does provide is an example of a different route. His career shows that someone can need support in one area while developing significant strengths in others, including practical problem-solving, communication, creativity, relationships and business judgement.

That is why the dyslexia element of the honour should not be treated as a secondary detail. It is central to what the recognition represents and to Richard’s wider message that different ways of learning should not be mistaken for a lack of potential.

From the New Year Honours List to Windsor Castle

Being named in The King’s New Year Honours marked the beginning of Richard Marshall’s formal recognition rather than the final moment. He was later invested as a Member of the Order of the British Empire at Windsor Castle, an occasion that carried significance not simply because of the medal, but because of the people, struggles, relationships and years of work that sat behind it.

Walking into one of Britain’s most historic royal residences represented an extraordinary contrast with where Richard’s career began. The young man who had left school early and built his education through practical work was now receiving national recognition at Windsor Castle.

Yet the most important part of the story lies in everything between those two moments: thousands of haircuts, thousands of conversations, years of business decisions, long working days, setbacks, expansion, mentors, clients, employees, family support, risks, failures and new opportunities.

The ceremony was therefore not a neat ending to a success story, but a milestone within a much longer journey built over decades of persistence, learning and continued progress.

The Barber Chair Remains at the Centre of the Story

Despite the awards, government involvement and international expansion, Richard Marshall’s story continues to return to the barber chair because that is where many of the foundations of his career were built. It was where he learned to communicate, understand clients and recognise the importance of turning up consistently.

Through thousands of conversations with people from different industries, professions and walks of life, the barber chair became a practical education in human behaviour, trust and business relationships.

It also became the foundation for Pall Mall Barbers itself. Today, the company speaks about Modern Heritage, international growth and the future of men’s grooming, but those ideas still connect back to the simple relationship between an independent barber and a client.  The scale of the business may have changed considerably over the years, but the foundation remains the same.

Building a British Business With International Ambition

Richard’s MBE also reflects a broader idea about British entrepreneurship: a small business does not necessarily need to remain small in ambition, and a local trade does not have to remain local in reach. A company rooted in a traditional profession can still embrace new markets, digital communication and international opportunities while retaining the identity that made it distinctive in the first place. Pall Mall Barbers’ growth into New York demonstrates that journey in practical terms, with the business maintaining its London identity while learning how to operate within a very different American environment.

That experience has helped shape Richard’s perspective on exporting and international trade. British heritage can provide a strong foundation and a recognisable point of difference, but heritage alone does not create international success.

A business still needs relevance, preparation, strong relationships, an understanding of the market and the willingness to adapt when circumstances change. For Richard, international ambition therefore means taking the strengths of a British business into new markets without assuming that the same approach will work everywhere.

Recognition Creates Responsibility

An MBE represents a significant achievement, but for Richard Marshall it also raises an important question about what comes next. Recognition can remain as something displayed on a wall, or it can become a larger platform from which to contribute, and Richard’s work increasingly points towards the second path. His personal brand now extends beyond Pall Mall Barbers into entrepreneurship, mentoring, dyslexia advocacy, small-business representation and international trade, with each of those areas connected by lived experience.

Richard understands what it feels like not to fit comfortably within traditional education, to begin without an established business network, to manage the pressures of running and expanding a company, and to face the uncertainty that comes with entering a new international market. He also understands the value of people who are willing to share what they have learned and help someone else navigate a challenge.

The MBE gives those experiences greater visibility and creates an opportunity to use recognition not simply as a reflection of past achievement, but as a platform for supporting, mentoring and encouraging others as they build their own path forward.

Richard Marshall MBE: An Honour Built Across Decades

The 2026 New Year Honours recognition is a major milestone in Richard Marshall’s career, but it is not a standalone moment. It connects decades of work, from learning barbering through practical experience to taking ownership of Pall Mall Barbers, growing the business across London, expanding into New York, receiving export recognition and contributing to wider SME and international trade discussions.

It also reflects a personal progression from needing mentors and guidance in the early stages of his career to becoming someone who now mentors others, as well as from struggling with dyslexia to being nationally recognised in part for supporting people who face similar challenges.

That is what gives the MBE its wider significance. The letters represent the honour, but the journey behind them represents the work, the setbacks, the learning and the relationships built over time. Richard Marshall was officially appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to international trade, mentoring and people with dyslexia. For Richard, the recognition is not simply a conclusion to what has already happened.

It is another reason to keep moving forward, another platform from which to share experience and another opportunity to support someone who may currently be much closer to the beginning of their own journey than the end. It also reinforces one of the clearest messages behind his story: where somebody starts does not have to determine where they finish.

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