Alan Boyd is an experienced, technology, media, intellectual property and finance specialist with a long history of success in Europe, America, Australia and Asia in startup, high-growth and publicly listed technology companies.

A pioneer of the 1970s US personal computer industry, he was the first Manager of Product Development at Microsoft where he reported directly to Bill Gates. He managed the development of many of the world’s leading software products that are today household names and sold billions of copies. In 1981, he founded Microsoft’s Acquisitions Group and managed the company’s investment strategy.

At Microsoft, Boyd was instrumental in introducing the first components of Microsoft Office – Word and Excel – and personally designed Microsoft Project. Bill Gates placed him in charge of the prototype of Microsoft Windows.

Boyd left Microsoft at their IPO to pursue a career in developing advanced software technologies. In 1986 he introduced the first browser to market establishing hypertext (http) as a key technology for the Internet. In Artificial Intelligence, he was a seed investor in the UK’s Turing Institute founded by Professor Donald Michie and in 1996 was CTO of Cyberlife Technologies, one of the world’s first commercial AI companies. In 1986, he was invited to China by Vice Premier Madam Wu Yi to advise the State Council on national technology direction and acquisition and in 1999, he closed his offices in Seattle and moved to China where he served as Senior IP Advisor at Beijing’s oldest private law firm, LongAn Law. In Shanghai, Boyd co-founded St Banks International Group, an advisory and investment boutique and was a Director at Beijing-based Ample Luck International Capital. He made over 40 investments in early-stage Chinese companies, many of which are now established brands in China. In 2011, after visiting the Binhai New Area of Tianjin with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, he co-founded Smartcity Investments, the first Chinese company to focus on the investment, development, acquisition and licensing of technologies used in the design, construction and operation of modern smart cities and intelligent buildings.

For 35 years, Alan Boyd has served as a non-executive director of public and private companies in the UK, USA, Australia and China in the Information Technology, Software and Artificial Intelligence sectors. He has also served as General Partner and Managing Partner in Venture Capital investment companies in USA and Asia.

In 2020, he returned to London to set up Metadventures, a post-VC investment company and DAUL.AI to develop advanced AI technologies for the WEB3/Metaverse era.