He is a chemical engineer by education who rose to the rank of Master Marketing Inventor at Procter & Gamble. At P&G, using the principles that would later drive the Eureka! Ranch and Innovation Engineering, his team of three invented and shipped a record nine innovations in just twelve months. In 1986, he founded the Eureka! Ranch where the mission is “to change the world through systems that enable everyone to think and act smarter, faster, and more innovatively.” Research indicates that the average US home uses 18 products or services that the Ranch team helped invent or reinvent for companies such as Walt Disney, Diagio, Nike, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, American Express and hundreds of others.
In 2009, Doug founded Innovation Engineering. It’s a new field of academic study and leadership science focused on System Driven Innovation. It applies the system thinking of Dr. W. Edwards Deming to innovation acceleration. Taught on college campuses and as an off-campus executive education program there are more than 35,000 executives trained and more than $75 Billion USD in active innovation projects in the USA & Europe. In 2016, Doug co-founded Brain Brew Custom Whiskey. The team invented the patent-pending WoodCraft Finishing method. Using the Eureka! Ranch’s accelerated R&D methods the team went from inventing the technology to taking 2 of 8 Double Gold medals at the North American Whiskey and Bourbon Championship in just 18 months. They produce the award-winning Noble Oak Bourbon that is available across the USA.
Doug is the best-selling author of seven books on innovation and courage. In Jump Start Your Business Brain, he documented his research on how to transform innovation from a random art to a reliable science. It is on Jack Covert’s prestigious list of the 100 best business books of all time.
He has starred in two network television series (ABC American Inventor and W Network Backyard Inventor) and a national radio program. Doug authored and performed a one-man play, North Pole Tenderfoot, on his adventure recreating Admiral Peary’s last dash to the North Pole.
For his pioneering work on System Driven Innovation, Doug was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Maine and a Doctor of Laws from the University of Prince Edward Island. Doug is a citizen of both Canada and the USA.