Douglas J. Burgum
Senior Vice President
Microsoft Business Solutions
Doug Burgum leads the Microsoft Business Solutions group, one of Microsoft's seven core business groups, and also is a member of the senior leadership team that guides the company's strategic, product planning, and business direction. Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide variety of software products for various computing devises. Microsoft Business Solutions delivers a line of products that help small-and mid-sized businesses, large corporations, and divisions of global enterprises automate and manage their core business processes.
Before joining Microsoft, Mr. Burgum was chairman and CEO of Great Plains Software Inc., (NASDAQ:GPSI). Microsoft acquired Great Plains for $1.1 billion in April of 2001. Mr. Burgum joined Great Plains as a start up at age 26 in 1983 and provided the initial seed capital for the company. Mortgaging some farmland he had inherited from his father, he literally "bet the farm" on Great Plains.
A North Dakota native, he earned his BA from North Dakota State University in 1978 and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1980. He received an honorary doctorate from North Dakota State University in 2000.
Mr. Burgum has established the Doug Burgum Family Foundation, which focuses its charitable giving on youth and education. He lives near Fargo, North Dakota, with his three children.
