Doug Richard - Biography

Doug Richard is a United Kingdom based Californian entrepreneur and specialist in technology transfer, commercialisation, and business incubation. He came to prominence as a result of the BBC programme Dragons' Den, where he appeared as a 'dragon', or investor in the first two series. Although he made 2 investments during the first series, he did not make any investments in the 2nd series, and thereafter stepped down to advise the investment of funds on behalf of Tudor Investments, a US based hedge fund that began investing in early stage high technology startups. He remains the only Dragon not to invest throughout a series.

He founded and sold two companies: Visual Software and ITAL Computers. He is also non executive director of Brightpearl and the Non Executive Chairman of BeatsDigital. Between 1996 and 2000 Doug was President and CEO of Micrografx, a US publicly quoted software company.

In May 2006, he received an honorary Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion - the only honorary awardee that year - for his work promoting, developing and helping entrepreneurs. as director and co-founder, Library House in Cambridge.

In 2008 he founded the School for Startups, an enterprise focussed on teaching entrepreneurship across the UK in partnership with leading UK Universities, the Royal Institution and the British Library.

In May 2008 Richard published his investigation into the British government's support of small businesses. The Richard Report was written at the behest of the Conservative Party, though Richard emphasised the work was politically neutral.

In 2010 Richard received the Enterprise Educator of the year award from the National Council on Graduate Employment for his work through School for Startups with UK Universities.

In January 2010 Richard authored the Entrepreneurs' Manifesto an independent work focusing on the continuing need for entreprenurialism to form the heart of the government's plans for economic recovery.

He currently resides in Cambridge, England.

External links

• Dragon's Den
• Doug Richard Biography Room54 Ltd Doug Richard Corporate Speaking
• Doug Richard's School for Startups
• Doug Richard's School for Startups Interviews
• Doug Richard's Contact page on oneleap