Richard M. Anderson is president and owner of VillageSoup Inc., a company that provides places for residents to learn, share and shop in the neighborhoods, villages or towns in which they reside. Before establishing VillageSoup, he spent five years teaching and 29 years developing and publishing elementary and high school textbooks. He was co-founder and eventual sole owner of Ligature Inc., a textbook production company. Anderson is an active community member who chairs and serves on various nonprofit organization boards. He and his wife Sandy live in Camden, Maine, as do two of their three children and families. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from the University of Northern Iowa and a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Iowa.