Richard Fade is an Ignition venture partner, investing in enterprise data and applications companies. He previously spent 16 years at Microsoft in several leadership roles, including serving in the executive staff as a division-level vice president for 10 years.

Most recently, Fade served as senior vice president of the OEM Division, where he was responsible for Microsoft’s licensing business with PC OEMs and embedded-device manufacturers. In other roles at Microsoft, Fade was in charge of overseeing the creation and launch of Office 97, Outlook and several Microsoft Office product line extensions, including the acquisition of Microsoft Front Page and led the teams which produced the first successful double-byte versions of Microsoft Windows, followed by Microsoft Office. Additionally, Fade served in several management positions in eight years at systems integrator Triad Systems.

He serves on the boards of Azaleos Corporation, Centeris and Klir Technologies. Richard and his wife Susan are active in supporting the needs of children with developmental disorders. They co-founded the Autism Center at the University of Washington. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Florida State University.