Biography

Doug Richard is a United Kingdom based Californian serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He is also founder of School for Startups in the UK which has trained more than ten thousand entrepreneurs in the UK and around the world since it was founded in 2008.

Richard came to public prominence as a result of the BBC TV program Dragons' Den, where he appeared as a 'dragon', or investor in the first two series. He subsequently became known for the Richard Report, the Entrepreneur's Manifesto and several other initiatives directed at improving UK support for startups and small businesses. He been invited to appear and comment on business initiatives and economic development with some frequency on the BBC and financial news networks.

Doug founded and sold two companies: Visual Software and ITAL Computers in the 1980s and 1990s. 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 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 focused 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 emphasized the work was non partisan. In 2009 Doug received an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Essex for his contribution to entrepreneurship education. 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 entrepreneurship to form the heart of the government's plans for economic recovery. In 2010 and 2011 he was a guest lecturer on Entrepreneurship at Cambridge University for the Nanotech Masters and PHD program.

Doug holds a BA in Psychology from University of California at Berkeley and a Juris Doctor at the school of Law, University of California at Los Angeles. He resides in Cambridge, England.
- IMDb mini biography by: Nancy Fulton