Doug's Career Highlights
Doug was born and raised western Oregon. He was surrounded by the lumber industry with his father owning and operating his own logging business and his grandfather (on his mother's side of the family) owning and operating Moser Lumber Company, a fully operational saw mill and a major player in the timber land sale and development business.
"I have always been surrounded by good business people and my interests in becoming a good business person myself motivated me to always learn all I could. And being very competitive by nature has driven me to achieve my goals in sports and in business."
Upon the sale of the before mentioned businesses, the McRae family moved to Danville, California. Doug attended high school and college in the San Francisco Bay Area prior to starting his first business venture at the age of nineteen. During this time he also found success as a professional motocross racer, a sport he followed his older brother into.
"My father, and his father, were involved in rodeo competition competing in the calf roping and steer wrestling events so we always had horses, ranched and rode while growing up. I enjoyed roping however, never really had time until later in life to devote any time to it."
In 1983 Doug became the number one professional motocross racer in northern California in the 250cc class. That same year he was also the top finishing privateer at the U.S. Grand Prix of Motocross in the 250cc class. His racing career further grew through his marketing abilities in which he gained many of the most prestigious sponsors in the world of motocross including, Yamaha Motor Corporation, Fox Racing, Fox Factory, Dunlop Tire Company, Maxima Racing Lubricants and more.
"My years spent racing, training and working closely with my sponsors really helped me later in my business ventures as it taught me discipline and what it takes to be successful in any curriculum I became involved in."
Doug received numerous awards throughout high school and college for his art and design works. At the age of nineteen years old he formed Designer Graphics, his own advertising and design studio in Walnut Creek, California and set out to build his first business. The business was successful and was in turn sold after five years of operation. The business was later bought back by Doug and then resold again over a period of three years with each sale bringing a new windfall to Doug due to his reorganization and revitalization abilities of sales each time.
In 1985 Doug retired from motocross racing and became more interested in horses, rodeo and in particular the calf roping event due mainly to his father, Ralph McRae's influence. Ralph is a PRCA gold card member who continues to compete in the Senior Pro Association with several World Championships in the association including calf roping, ribbon roping and All Around Championships. With his new found involvement in rodeo competition Doug made the decision to start up a new business, Cowboy Gear. This business venture marketed gear bags, jackets and vests initially that were manufactured through one of his former motocross connections. As he grew the business into a retail mail order catalog enterprise it was expanded further by its founder into a retail store in Oakdale, California. Doug managed the new corporation as president and majority stock holder through the tough stages of a start up business and into a growing venture at a tremendous growth rate. He became very well known and respected throughout the western industry as an innovative retailer and marketer of his own business and the name brand products that he sold.
In 1989 Doug became involved in another business venture, World Champion Designs. This partnership with World Champion Barrel Racer Marlene Eddleman involved the development of a retail catalog that marketed Marlene's endorsed products. Becoming more involved in this business, and enjoying the freedom away from the retail enviroment, Doug made the decision to sell his majority portion of stock held in Cowboy Gear, Inc.to his fellow stock holders in 1991. This opened another door of opportunity as it allowed Doug to fully concentrate the further development of World Champion Designs into the premier mail order catalog business to a a growing industry around the sport of barrel racing.
After Doug and Marlene married in 1993 they agreed on moving all of their operations back to Marlene's home on the Lone Tree Ranch in Colorado. The move also brought with it a new opportunity to become more involved with the cattle business, which included the cow/calf operations on over 20,000 acres of grass and farm land. This new venture lasted for three years when the two decided that their growing horse related businesses took precidence over their new cattle venture. At that time Doug and Marlene moved more into their equine businesses and away from the cattle subsiderary.
Doug and Marlene now concentrate souly on their diverse array of businesses in the performance horse world including:
Lone Tree Ranch- development of horses for the performance equine world
Marlene McRae- Barrel Racing & Horsemanship Clinics & Seminars throughout the world
World Champion Designs- direct to the customer products that enhance performance
Special Effx Saddles & WCD All Around Saddles- research & development
Lone Tree Ranch, LLC
1740 County Road 185 v Ramah, Colorado 80832 v 719-337-2050
1120 Spur 100 v Kerrville, Texas 78028 v 719-338-6005
E-Mail: doug@lonetreeranch.com
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