Doug Richard

Doug Richard (born 6 May 1958) is an American entrepreneur best known for his television appearances in the United Kingdom. He appeared as a "Dragon" on the first two series of Dragons' Den and was also a government adviser. 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 were 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.