Richard Kennedy Llewellyn was an Australian business consultant, speaker, technology executive, and company director. His career included senior management roles with Honeywell and Ultimate Computer, later consulting, corporate directorships, and support for Melbourne’s technology, arts, literary, and entrepreneurial communities.
Background
Richard Kennedy Llewellyn was born on August 14, 1951, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to Mervyn Leonard Llewellyn Urschel and Marie (Williams) Urschel. His professional life was centered largely in Melbourne, where he developed a career linking business management, computing, consulting, public speaking, and community participation.
Llewellyn later maintained connections with Indonesia as well as Australia. A family tribute described his interest in technology, entrepreneurs, artisans, and Melbourne’s cultural life, and noted that he spent more than three decades living in inner Melbourne.
Education
Llewellyn completed a Company Directors Diploma at the University of New England in 1991. The University of New England, founded in 1938 in Armidale, New South Wales, was Australia's first regional university and developed a significant tradition of external and distance education, making advanced study accessible beyond the major metropolitan centers.
His directors' training complemented a career that progressed from operational management in computing and technology companies to consulting and corporate governance.
Career
Llewellyn began the documented senior-management phase of his career as general manager of The Logic Shop Prime Minister, Ltd., in Melbourne from 1980 to 1982. He then served as a Melbourne branch manager with Honeywell, Ltd., from 1982 to 1984. Honeywell was an international technology company whose activities included industrial control, computing, automation, and electronic systems, fields that shaped the commercial environment in which Llewellyn worked.
From 1984 to 1985, Llewellyn was state manager of Ultimate Computer, Ltd. He returned to the company as general manager from 1986 to 1987 and then served as managing director from 1987 to 1989. During 1987–1989 he was also vice president for Asia and the Pacific of Ultimate Corporation, based in New Jersey, while working from Melbourne. These roles placed him in the expansion of business computing and corporate information systems during the 1980s.
From 1989, Llewellyn was managing director of Richard K. Llewellyn & Associates, later represented through the registered company Llewellyn & Associates Pty Ltd. The business operated in the consulting sphere and was associated with management, scientific, and technical consulting services. He also served as a non-executive director of Dulhunty Power Limited, later renamed Energy Technologies Limited, during the late 2000s and early 2010s, and participated in the company's audit committee.
Llewellyn's later activities included corporate and entrepreneurial involvement beyond his earlier computing-management positions. A family account described his support for emerging Melbourne internet ventures, including SEEK and Freeonline, and his directorship associated with the development of Oakridge winery. The same account identified him as a long-term chairman and director of Overland Literary Magazine and as a mentor and networker within Melbourne's business and cultural communities.
Achievements
Llewellyn held senior management positions in business computing and technology companies during the 1980s, including managing director of Ultimate Computer and vice president for Asia and the Pacific of Ultimate Corporation.
He contributed to the development of Melbourne's entrepreneurial and technology community through support for emerging internet ventures and through mentoring and networking activities.
He participated in corporate governance as a non-executive director of Dulhunty Power Limited, later Energy Technologies Limited, and as a member of its audit committee.
He supported cultural and literary institutions, including Oakridge winery and Overland Literary Magazine, through directorship and long-term involvement.
Views
Llewellyn's documented interests and later family recollections indicate an outlook that valued entrepreneurship, technological change, creativity, and civic and cultural life. His support for emerging technology companies and for literary, artistic, culinary, and winemaking communities connected commercial enterprise with broader cultural activity.
Membership
Llewellyn participated in Rotaract and community organizations in Melbourne, including the Waverley Rotaract Club, whose foundation presidency he held, and the Rotaract District Committee. He also served with the N.W. Melbourne Community Planning Group and was associated with the Victorian Arts Center Society, an organization connected with the cultural life and civic support of the Victorian Arts Centre.
His professional affiliations included the Australian Institute of Management and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. The latter is Australia's principal professional body for company directors and promotes standards of governance, education, and director development.
Foundation president.
Waverley Rotaract Club
,
Australia
1972 - 1973
Committee member.
Rotaract District Committee
,
Australia
1973 - 1975
Participant in community planning activities.
N.W. Melbourne Community Planning Group
,
Australia
1979 - 1982
Member associated with the Victorian Arts Centre's cultural and civic support network.
Victorian Arts Center Society
,
Australia
1982
Fellow.
Australian Institute of Management
,
Australia
Founding fellow.
Australian Institute of Company Directors
,
Australia
Personality
Family recollections described Llewellyn as curious, generous, charming, sociable, and strongly interested in technology, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, food, and hospitality. He was also remembered as a networker, coach, and mentor.
Quotes from others about the person
A family tribute remembered Llewellyn as a curious and generous mind who supported technology entrepreneurs and creative practitioners, and described him as a networker, friend, coach, and mentor.
Llewellyn was the son of Mervyn Leonard Llewellyn Urschel and Marie (Williams) Urschel. He married Sonya Maria Gwozdezki in 1972; the marriage ended in divorce in 1978. They had a son, Patrick Jakob Llewellyn. He married Janet May Hitchens on January 29, 1978, and they had a daughter, Megan May Llewellyn.
Later family accounts identified Patrick and a daughter named Violet, and described Llewellyn as a husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. His family tribute also emphasized his long-standing connections with Melbourne and Indonesia.
Father:
Mervyn Leonard Llewellyn Urschel
Mother:
Marie (Williams) Urschel
Wife:
Sonya Maria Gwozdezki
Married in 1972; the marriage ended in divorce in 1978.
Wife:
Janet May Hitchens
Married on January 29, 1978.
Son:
Patrick Jakob Llewellyn
Worked in technology and later paid tribute to his father.
Patrick Llewellyn family tribute
Provides a family account of Llewellyn's death on October 1, 2026, family life, Melbourne residence, support for technology entrepreneurs, cultural interests, and community relationships.
