Always doing things but ‘winding down’

Then: Port-to-Port Consulting president

Now: Running Zombie Enterprises principal owner

Age: 54

Damon Richards has one of the few resumes in which someone starts as company president and ends as vice president. The company was Port-to-Port Consulting, which he and a partner started with a small-business loan and grew to $2 million to $3 million a year in revenue.

But Port-to-Port was “never funded well enough to really grow the way I wanted us to,” so after 20 years as president, he spent 16 months as vice president while he transitioned out. In 2014, he set up Running Zombie Enterprises, named for a tattoo he has, where he provides executive coaching and short-term personal-services contracts for organizations like Freewheelin’ Community Bikes. He’s also now interim director of IndyCog, the city’s bicycle-advocacy group.

“I am pretending to be retired until I no longer have to pretend,” Richards said. “I keep busy, and I’m always doing things, but I’m not looking for the next big thing anymore. I am winding down.”

—Marc D. Allan