The son of a wealthy investment banker, after working as a stockbroker for Dominion Securities, in 1945 Bud McDougald teamed up with E. P. Taylor to establish Taylor, McDougald and Company Ltd. which would lead to his rise in the Taylor-controlled holding company, Argus Corporation.

While McDougald would become involved in the sport of Thoroughbred racing, E. P. Taylor would devote much of his time to building his very successful Windfields Farm.

That situation saw McDougald rise within the business to where he was appointed chairman of the board of directors and president of Argus.

He was largely responsible for making it one of Canada's dominant business conglomerates that had controlling interest in Dominion Stores, Hollinger Mines, Massey Ferguson, Standard Broadcasting, Crown Trust and Domtar.

Introduced to the sport by E. P. Taylor, McDougald was a founding member of the Jockey Club of Canada.