Doug Richard

Education

Richard received his undergraduate degree from University of California at Berkeley majoring in psychology in 1980. He received his Doctorate of Law at University of California at Los Angeles in 1985. He received his Executive Management Certificate from UCLA School of Business in 1989.

Business background

Richard founded his first company, ITAL Computers in 1985, which sold services that integrated computer aided design and manufacture systems to the southern California aerospace industry. ITAL Computers was sold in a private transaction in 1991 and the profits used to found his second company, Visual Software. Richard co-founded, managed and sold Visual Software with his partner John Halloran. Visual Software was sold to Micrografx, a NASDAQ listed public company for $12,000,000 in shares in 1996. In 1997, Richard became the president and CEO of Micrografx, the company by whom he had been acquired the year before. Richard turned around the fortunes of Micrografx by shifting its focus from consumer software to business and technical marketplaces. Micrografx was sold to Corel Corporation in 2001.

After the sale of Corel Corporation, Richard re-located to Cambridge with his family. Shortly after the move, Richard co-founded the Cambridge Angels, an angel investment group focusing on technology startups in the Cambridge region, with Robert Sansom in 2001. He retired from the Cambridge Angels in 2008.

Richard was an active angel investor from 2001-2008. His first investment was in a Manchester based startup, Designer Servers, known as DSVR. Richard and the founders successfully exited from the company in 2004 when it was sold to the company that became Legend Communications, PLC.

Also in 2001, Richard co-founded Library House with a group of entrepreneurs and angel investors from the Cambridge Cluster. Library House was founded as a buy-side research house focusing on technology startups and be-spoke analysis for venture capital firms. The financial downturn in 2008 led venture firms to reduce their investments in research forcing Library House into administration as another victim of the global downturn. Its database of transactions, which was the only database of European venture activity, was sold to Dow Jones.

In 2004, Richard co-founded Trutap, with David Whitewood, a mobile software company offering free text and interactive messaging across the internet, prior to the introduction of smart phones. Trutap received three rounds of funding from two investors, Tudor Investments and the Cambridge Angels. The company closed in good order and the remaining investment was returned to Investors after the company was unable to pivot with the introduction and success of the iPhone.

In 2008, Richard founded School for Startups Ltd.

Dragons' Den

In late 2004, Richard was approached by the BBC to join a new reality TV show called Dragons' Den. Richard was joined by Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Rachel Elnaugh and Simon Woodroffe as the first 'Dragons'. Richard appeared on the first two series of the programme. He voluntarily stepped down after the end of the second series after failing to make a single investment.

Awards and recognition

In 2006, he received an honorary Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. The award was honorary as Richard was an US citizen.

In 2009, Richard was awarded honorary doctorate from the University of Essex for his work supporting entrepreneurship.

In 2010, he was awarded Enterprise Educator of the Year by National Council on Graduate Entreprise.

In 2013, Richard was awarded an honorary doctorate from University of Plymouth for his work with Plymouth in supporting the growth of small business in the south west.

Richard was appointed as an ambassador for the British Library’s Business and IP Centre.

He is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

Publications and government advisory work

In 2008, Richard wrote and published the Richard Report on Small Business, as the Chairman of the Conservative Party Task Force, a policy guideline on support for small business for the Conservative Party while in opposition.

In 2010, Richard published the “Entrepreneurs Manifesto”, a call-to-action to drive entrepreneurship in the UK.

In 2012, Richard published the Richard Review of Apprenticeships, a government requested review of the apprenticeship system which was supported by all political parties and formed the basis for the reform of the apprenticeship system in the UK.

In 2013, Richard published his first Book, “How to Start a Creative Business”, on entrepreneurship in the creative industries.

Board memberships and non profits

Richard served as a Counsellor at One Young World in 2012, 2013 & 2015.

Richard is a former non-executive director of Innovate UK, the UK's Innovation Agency.

School for Startups

Richard founded School for Startups in 2008 to help people start their own businesses through training and support courses, and to help governments and regions drive economic growth based on the principles of entrepreneurial economics. The school has taught over 30,000 people how to start their own business. The school is best known for a series of high-profile programmes including:

Although he ceased to be a director on 27 July 2015, he was reappointed as a director on 5 January 2016. As a director he is now actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the School. Nicola Ann Coleman ceased to be the company secretary on 17 December 2015. Mark Lewis Northcott ceased to be a director on 4 January 2016.

Sexual abuse allegations

In January 2015, the Daily Mirror reported that Richard had been arrested on suspicion of having sex with an underage girl. Richard strongly denied the allegations.

On 7 September 2015, Richard was charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He appeared before the City of London Magistrates' Court on 5 October and was bailed until his appearance at the Old Bailey in January 2016 for trial.

On 25 January 2016, Richard appeared at the Old Bailey, where he admitted sexual activity did occur with the girl but claimed it was consensual, believing her to be 17 at the time. Richard had met the thirteen-year-old through a dating website called SeekingArrangement. The court heard that the girl in question told Richard on a number of occasions that she was 17. On 29 January 2016, Richard was cleared of the child sex offences brought against him.