Ric Upton has been involved in the development and growth of technology-based businesses for more than 30 years. As founder of Gloucester Innovation, a Cape Ann-based firm, he is focused on promoting the growth of businesses involved in AI, data analytics, mobility, ocean sensing and autonomy, leveraging the entrepreneurial, financial and academic resources of the Greater Boston area. Ric also holds the position of Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Angle Center for Entrepreneurship, Endicott College. The Center was endowed by Colin Angle, co-founder of iRobot, and his wife Erika.

Ric has held executive positions in commercial and government-oriented firms, including President of Near Infinity Corporation, a Reston, VA small business specializing in cloud, mobile and enterprise software solutions, Executive-in-Residence with General Catalyst Partners, a $3.0B venture capital firm headquartered in Cambridge, MA, and Executive Vice President for healthcare informatics and intelligence with BBN Technologies, a General Catalyst portfolio company (and now part of Raytheon Corporation).

He also served as Senior Vice-President for business development and operations with ALPHATECH, Inc. (now BAE Systems), Chief Technology Officer and Vice-President, Operations for SignCast, Inc., a $30M place-based digital media network backed by AOL/Time-Warner and the Interpublic Group; and TASC, where his responsibilities included Vice-President, Strategic Development, Technical Director and Division Manager. He began his career with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Ric holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, and an M.S.E and B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as an advisor to Accuvant, a leading provider of services and solutions for enterprise information security, Pixel Forensics, a product and services provider of multimedia analytics solutions, and Privaris, a provider of biometric security solutions for physical and logical access security, as well as personal identification verification. He has been on the Board of Advisors for the Computer Science Department, University of Maryland and the Engineering Department, University of California, Riverside.