Dick Eassom

Dick Eassom is Vice President of Corporate Support at SMA: The Program Lifecycle Company, where he leads functions supporting proposal development, knowledge management, and enterprise content systems. He has more than 30 years of experience developing winning proposals across international markets, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Australia.

Since joining SMA in 1998, Dick has held leadership roles in information technology, knowledge management, project management, and product development. His work has focused on improving how organizations develop, structure, and deliver complex proposals in competitive environments.

He is a Certified Fellow of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) and has served in multiple executive roles on its international Board of Directors, including Chief Executive Officer. He was inducted as an APMP Fellow in 2004 and received the William C. McRea Founders Award for his contributions to the profession.

Dick is also recognized for his expertise in proposal production and document development. As “Wordman,” he has written extensively on proposal practices and continues to train and present globally. He is the author of The SMA Way: A Style Guide for Proposal Writers.

Prior to SMA, Dick spent over 20 years at GEC-Marconi Communications Ltd., where he held roles in engineering, field services, and marketing communications, ultimately focusing on proposal development for military communications systems.

His experience across both the technical and production dimensions of proposals informs his contribution to The Pursuit of High-Stakes Business, particularly in how proposals function as the mechanism for proving competitive commitments.

He holds a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Leeds.

Dick is an acknowledged expert in the use of Microsoft Word to produce proposals. In the guise of his alter ego, Wordman, he has written more than 40 articles for the APMP Perspective newsletter and the Journal of the APMP. He is the author of The SMA Way: A Style Guide for Proposal Writers and lead editor of The Essential Guide to Proposal Development, both published by SMA.