Ian Cleland Ritchie, CBE, FREng, FRSE, FBCS, CEng is a Scottish businessman specialising in the Information Technology sector.
In 1984, Ritchie founded the software company, Office Workstations Limited (OWL) in Edinburgh, after leaving ICL when they closed their Scottish Development Centre at Dalkeith Palace the previous year.
From 1997 onwards, Ritchie became involved in venture capital and was the founding chairman of several Scottish IT companies, including Voxar, VIS Entertainment, Orbital Software Group, and Digital Bridges. He has also been on the board of Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council, and Channel 4 Television.
He was a founding director and chairman of the Scottish Software Federation from 1988 to 1990, and served as President of the British Computer Society from 1998 to 1999.
Ritchie was awarded an CBE in the 2003 New Years Honours List for services to enterprise and education. Ritchie also holds Honorary Doctorates from four Scottish universities.
As of 2008, Ritchie is Chairman of Computer Application Services, Scapa Technologies and Caspian Learning and a Director of Iomart. Outside of the business world, he is an Honorary Professor of Heriot-Watt University, a non-executive Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, a board member of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, a trustee of the National Museums of Scotland, a member of the board of Our Dynamic Earth, and a trustee of the Bletchley Park Trust.