Dan Richards began teaching at Rotman in 1992 as a part time instructor. Since then he has regularly received teaching awards based on student feedback and In 2023 the graduating MBA class. voted him Best Prof. 

While a part time instructor, Richards built and successfully sold two start-ups in the financial arena, the first to Environics Research and the second to Rogers Communicatinos. In 2002 he was recruited to be CEO of a public company with 3500 financial advisors that had acquired five mutual fund and distribution firms. There he bulit a team that stabilized its situation and led its turnaround and subsequent sale to a firm that became part of Scotiabank. For a subsequent venture that leveraged video to communicate with financial advisors across North America he interviewed top academics, economists and 20 Nobel prize winners.

Currently Dan teaches in five programs at Rotman and is the faculty member who oversees the course associated with the internships that are required for full time MBA students to graduate. Dan also serves as Associate Director of the FinHub Student Fellows Program, part of the Rotman FinHub Financial Laboratory and is a member of the Advisory Board for the student run Impact Consulting Group. 

Dan is considered one of Canada’s leading authority on investor attitudes and on how financial advisors and financial institutions need to position themselves for future success. He is author of Getting Clients, Keeping Clients: The Essential Guide for Tomorrow's Financial Advisor, that was published by John Wiley & Sons and was an international best seller, winning numerous ndustry awards. Today,he contributes regular columns to  Harvard Buseinss Review and the Globe and Mail Report on Business and is a frequent guest on BNN. 

Dan holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from McGill University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, he serves on the board of eight charities, five in Toronto and three in Africa and in warm weather cycles 400 kilometers per week.