Nigel Edward Doughty (10 June 1957 – 4 February 2012) was a British investor and football club owner, who was co-chairman and co-founder of

Doughty Hanson & Co Doughty Hanson & Co is a British private equity fund manager focused on leveraged buyout and recapitalization transactions primarily of upper middle-market companies in Europe. The firm also invests opportunistically in European real estate and ...

, a European

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

firm based in London. Doughty was born in Newark,

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. Doughty Hanson & Co traces its history back to 1985 when Doughty and Richard Hanson began working together on European investments. Doughty completed his Cranfield BA in 1984 and became a Distinguished Alumnus of the

Cranfield School of Management Cranfield School of Management, established in 1967, is a business school that is part of Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. It was ranked Top 10 in the UK and 34th in Europe in the Financial Times European Business Schools ...

in 2004. He made a personal donation in 2006 to establish the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield School of Management. He was also President of The Cranfield Trust. Doughty was a Trustee of the Doughty Family Foundation and the Doughty Hanson Charitable Foundation. Around 2010, Doughty was an Assistant Treasurer of the Labour Party and Chairman of the Small Business Taskforce policy review. He was a member of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

in Davos. Doughty bought control of Nottingham Forest F.C. for £11 million in 1999. After the departure of

Steve McClaren Stephen McClaren (born 3 May 1961) is an English former professional footballer and coach who currently serves as an assistant coach for Premier League club Manchester United, in his second spell at the club. McClaren began his coaching caree ...

as Forest manager in October 2011, Doughty announced his decision to step down as Forest chairman by the end of the 2011–12 season. Doughty's son Michael is a professional footballer. On 4 February 2012, Doughty was found dead in the gymnasium of his home in

Skillington Skillington is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2021 census was 314. It is situated west from the A1 road, south from Grantham, and is within of the ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. His death was due to

Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) is a sudden unexpected death of adolescents and adults, mainly during sleep. One relatively common type is known as Brugada syndrome. The syndrome is rare in most areas around the world but occurs in po ...

(SADS).

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Doughty Hanson & Co
1957 births 2012 deaths Private equity and venture capital investors People from Newark-on-Trent English financial businesspeople Alumni of Cranfield University People educated at Magnus Church of England School English football chairmen and investors Labour Party (UK) officials Nottingham Forest F.C. 20th-century English businesspeople {{UK-private-equity-bio-stub