Richard graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire and started his career in the golf business by managing private clubs in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He continued his thirty-five year career as general manager and vice president of operations for some nationally recognized clubs likeCastle Pines, Desert Mountain and PGA WEST. The last twelve years of experience were gained while serving as vice president or senior director of clubs for companies, which involved multi-club responsibilities. The companies have included Desert Mountain Development Company in Scottsdale, Arizona and Castle Pines in Denver, Colorado. Additionally he has served on the Executive Committee for nine PGA and Senior PGA Tour events.
Dick has also “opened” five golf courses and four clubhouses, working closely with the architects and construction firms.
His program on “Board Dynamics/Model Clubs” has been presented to over 250 private clubs and communities around the United States. It has become a resource for club and community Boards in providing strategic guidance as they work through today’s economic challenges. Kopplin has assisted over three dozen golf course communities in developing a strategic process for focusing on their top annual governance goals and he often returns to client clubs on an annual basis to update their planning process.
Dick has been a featured speaker for past fourteen years at the Club Managers Association of America’s annual conference where he has continued to provide education on governance and management topics to private club and community general managers. He has also conducted seminars on club governance worldwide in Madrid, Spain; St. Andrews, Scotland; Singapore, Malaysia; London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland and Milan, Italy.
He presently serves as a Partner of KOPPLIN & KUEBLER.
Dick is the recipient of The BoardRoom Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.