Douglas Dryburgh

After a short stint at QinetiQ plc, he joined Viapath llp, the Serco plc controlled healthcare joint venture as COO in 2014. He took over as CEO in 2016 and is based in central London. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director for the British Athletes Commission.

Dryburgh moved to Ireland later on, and would join up with four other ex-Scots and qualified for the 2006 World Men's Curling Championship by placing seventh at the 2005 European Championships. At the Worlds, Ireland finished in 12th place.

On leaving the RAF in 2006, Dryburgh joined the Executive team at NHS Blood and Transplant where he served as an operations director for 6 years.

In 2005/06 Dryburgh played his final year for Ireland, skipping the team through qualification at the 2005 European Men's Championships in Garmisch Partenkirchen to the 2006 World Men's Curling Championship, Lowell, MA. It is only time Ireland has qualified for the World Men's Finals. Dryburgh retired from competitive curling in 2006.

Ten years later, Dryburgh was back at the European Championships where he claimed a bronze medal for Scotland. In 1998 he skipped the British team at the 1998 Winter Olympics. They finished in seventh place.

A month later Dryburgh qualified for the 1997 European Championships in Fussen,Germany. The team narrowly lost the Semi-final to Andi Kapp's home team and eventual winners. However, Dryburgh went on to take the bronze medal beating the reigning World Champions, Peter Lindholm's Swedish team.

On joining the RAF in 1990 Dryburgh spent much of his time in England which meant he was unable to practice. However, in 1994 he was posted to RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland, which meant he could practice regularly and it was at this time his team was selected as one of eight top British teams of the time to enter the first Olympic playoffs since 1924, in a 3-year selection cycle leading up to the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. The selection cycle culminated in a double round robin payoff between the final four teams skipped by Dryburgh, David Smith, Hammy McMillan and Colin Hamilton. Dryburgh and McMillan reached the final both with a 4-2 (win/loss) record. Dryburgh won the final 9-4 and qualified for the 1998 winter Olympics, Nagano, Japan. It the first time since the 1924 Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix, France that curling was back at the Winter Olympics.

In parallel with his sporting career, and after graduating, Dryburgh joined the Royal Air Force on the 1st April 1990. He held a permanent commission and served at several operational and training bases in the UK (RAF Cosford, RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Halton, RAF Locking, RAF Innsworth and RAF Benson) in a variety of operational training and administrative appointments. He was appointed as aide-de-camp to HRH the Princess Royal at Holyrood palace, Edinburgh when The Princess Royal was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen as Lord High Commissioner for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1996. He was promoted to the rank of Squadron Leader in 1998 following the Olympic Games and Wing Commander in 2003 before retiring from the RAF in 2006.

Douglas Dryburgh was a successful junior curler in his native Scotland. In his first international tournament, Dryburgh and his Scottish team claimed a gold medal at the 1987 World Junior Curling Championships. Later that year he skipped the Scottish team to a sixth-place finish at the European Curling Championships.

Dryburgh was unbeaten when he won the Scottish Junior Curling Championship in 1987 and that year won every junior tournament on the circuit and for the first time a Scottish team was favourites to win a world title, and in Canada. He went on to beat Hugh McFadyen's outstanding Canadian Junior Champions, who had also won their national title unbeaten, to win the 1987 World Junior Championship in Victoria, BC, Canada. The final holds the record for the lowest scoring world curling final at 3-2. Later that year Dryburgh skipped the Scottish men's team at the 1987 European Men's Championship in Obersdorf, Germany where the team finished in 6th place.

He started skipping the team in 1986 and in his first year reached the final of both the Scottish Junior and Men's Championships. In 1987 he again reached both finals, a feat no male junior Skip has yet managed to repeat.

Dryburgh started curling at Aviemore Ice Rink when he was 12. When he was 14 he qualified as Lead player, in a team skipped by his brother Stewart and including David Smith at Second, for the 1981 Scottish Junior (U21) finals where they finish in third place.

Dryburgh was educated at Aviemore Primary School (1970–77); St James's Junior School (1977–78), Light Hall High School (1978), Shirley, Solihull; Kingussie High School (1978–80), Highland and Kirkcaldy High School (1980–83), Kirkcaldy, Fife. He went on to obtain a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at West of Scotland University (Paisley College, 1983–87) followed by a MSc in Information Technology from Glasgow University (1989). He has an MBA (2004) from Henley Management College.

Douglas (Dougie) Dryburgh (born 30 January 1966 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland) is an Olympic curler, retired Royal Air Force Wing Commander and currently CEO of Viapath llp in central London.

Douglas Dryburgh was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland on 30 January 1966. Initially the family lived in Brighton where his father, Jack Dryburgh, was a professional ice hockey player. The family moved to Aviemore, Scotland when he was 3 years old, where his father managed Aviemore Ice Rink. Dryburgh' s mother, Jaqueline (Jackie) Dryburgh, a former professional ice skater, was the local Ice skating teacher. After a move to Solihull from 1977/78 and then back to Aviemore until 1980, the family settled in Kirkcaldy, Fife, where Dryburgh attended Kirkcaldy High School.