Richard E. Simmons III is the founding director of The Center for Executive Leadership, a faith-based ministry in Birmingham, Alabama focused on counseling businessmen and professionals, which he started in 2001. Richard and The Center’s team currently meet weekly with over 500 people in small groups and one-on-one studies and coaching sessions in the Birmingham, Alabama area.

Richard is the best-selling author of The True Measure of a Man, Reliable Truth, The Power of a Humble Life, and more. His approach is structured and methodical, and his passion is transforming lives through gaining wisdom and applying truth to every area of life. Last year Richard wrote The Reason for Life, which deals with our search for meaning and purpose. His newest book, Reflections on the Existence of God is a series of short essays seeking to answer life’s most enduring question: Does God exist?

As Richard’s oldest child was about to start college, he was moved to write his compelling book, Sex at First Sight, addressing the topic of the hookup culture. The messages in that book are currently touching hearts and forming, or reforming, lives in ways that God alone can know and own. Richard’s first book, The True Measure of a Man, has been changing men’s lives and their concepts of themselves as men for more than ten years, and was adapted for prison ministry in recent years as The True Measure of a Man – Prison Edition. That book, and its associated study guide, is transfiguring the lives of men in prison facilities throughout the southeast United States.

Richard was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama and educated at Sewanee, The University of the South. He worked in the insurance industry for 28 years, many of those as CEO of Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton before starting The Center.

When he’s not spending time with his wife Holly and their three children, Richard enjoys teaching, counseling, writing, or speaking to men’s groups across the country. He is also the author of A Life of Excellence, Reliable Truth, Wisdom: Life’s Great Treasure, Safe Passage, and Remembering the Forgotten God.