Background
Doriot was born in Paris, France in 1899, to Berthe Camille Baehler and Auguste Doriot the pioneering motorist, racer, engineer, factory manager, dealer and car manufacturer (owner of DFP).
Doriot was born in Paris, France in 1899, to Berthe Camille Baehler and Auguste Doriot the pioneering motorist, racer, engineer, factory manager, dealer and car manufacturer (owner of DFP).
He immigrated to America to earn an Master of Business Administration and stayed on, becoming a professor at the Harvard Business School in 1926.
An émigré from France, Doriot became director of the United States. Army"s Military Planning Division, Quartermaster General, during World World War II, eventually being promoted to brigadier general. In 1957, he founded European Institute of Business Administration (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires), the world"s top global graduate business school with campuses in Fontainebleau (France), Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Youth, education and military service
Doriot enlisted in the French army in 1920.
He became a United States. citizen in 1940 and the following year was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the United States. Army Quartermaster Corps.
As Director of the Military Planning Division for the Quartermaster General, he worked on military research, development and planning, eventually being promoted to brigadier general. In 1946, Doriot returned to Harvard and the same year he founded American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC), one of the first two venture capital firms along with Ralph Flanders and Karl Compton (former president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology), to encourage private sector investments in businesses run by soldiers who were returning from World World War World War II ARDC"s significance was primarily that it was the first institutional private equity investment firm that accepted money from sources other than wealthy families although it had several notable investment successes as well.
In 1957, Doriot founded European Institute of Business Administration (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires), the world"s top global graduate business school in France with a group of his former Harvard Master of Business Administration students. ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital success story when its 1957 investment of $70,000 in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) would be valued at over $38 million after the company"s initial public offering in 1968 (representing a return of over 500 times on its investment and an annualized rate of return of 101%).
Later years
ARDC continued investing until 1971 with the retirement of Doriot.
In 1972, Doriot merged ARDC with Textron after investing in over 150 companies. Doriot died of lung cancer in 1987 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Doriot Climatic Chambers at the United States. Army Soldier Systems Center, Natick, Massachusetts were named in his honor in 1994.
(During his time in the United States Army, Doriot had written and spoken about the need for an "Institute of Manitoba" for the testing of soldiers and their equipment at environmental extremes The DCCs are seen as a partial fulfillment of that vision).
In 1946, he founded American Research and Development Corporation, the world"s first publicly owned venture capital firm, earning him the sobriquet "father of venture capitalism". Foreign his role in the founding of ARDC Doriot is often referred to as the "father of venture capitalism".