Doug Burgum Biography, Career, Education, Family, Height, Age, and Net Worth.

Who is Doug Burgum?

Doug Burgum is an American politician and a businessman. Currently, she s serving as the 33rd Governor of North Dakota since 2016. Doug is a member of the Republican Party.

Before joining politics, he was working at the Great Plain Sofware. He joined the company in 1983 and one year later he became the president in1984. However, he later sold the company to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001. After selling the company, he also became part of Microsoft and he was working as the head of Business Solutions at Microsoft.  In addition, in 2012, he started working as the Chair of the board of Atlassian.  Furthermore, he has also served on the board for Success Factor starting in 2007, moreover, he also served as the chairman of the same board from 2010 to 2012.  In addition, he is the founder of Kilbourne Group.  The group is a Fargo-based real-estate development firm. Moreover, he is also the founder of Arthur Ventures.

Doug confirmed his interest to run for governor of North Dakota as a Republican in 2016. Furthermore, despite having no formal political experience and losing the state party’s endorsement to veteran Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem at the party convention in April. He went ahead and defeated Stenehjem in the Republican primary election.

In the November general election, he faced Democrat Marvin Nelson and Libertarian Marty Riske, and he won with more than 75% of the vote. He was re-elected with 66 percent of the vote in 2020.

Career

Early Career

After he graduated from University, he relocated to Chicago to be employed as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. After some time he mortgaged $250, 000 of farmland t provide the seed capital for the accounting Software company Great Plain Software in Fargo North Dakota.

Moreover, Doug joined the firm in 1983 and became president in 1984. He became the president, after guiding a small investment group comprised of family members in purchasing the remainder of the company.

How Old Is Doug Burgum?

He was born on August 1, 1956, and he is 64 years old.

Doug Burgum Family

Who Are Doug’s Parents?

He was born in Arthur, North Dakota to  Katherine Kilbourne and Joseph Boyd Burgum.

Does He Have Siblings?

He has two siblings Bradley J. Burgum and Barbara Burgum

Doug  Education

He graduated from North Dakota State University where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1978. In addition, while at NDSU, in his senior year, he applied to the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His request at Stanford University was accepted and he was admitted to Stanford. He received his MBA from Stanford University graduating in 1980. He also received an honorary doctorate from North Dakota State in 2000 and from the University of Mary in 2006.

Doug Burgum Wife

Currently, he is married to Kathryn Helgaas.

Divorce

Burgum married their first wife in 1991 and they divorced in 2003

Doug Burgum Kids

Together with his first wife, they share three children.

Great Plain Software

The  Great Plain Software company was often ranked by Fortune Magazine in the 1980s as one of the top 100 companies to work for. Doug grew the company from 250 workers. As a result of his hard work by 1989, the company had grown to $300 million in annual sales and 1997 IPO. This was after they used the internet to help in expansion beyond North Dakota.

However, in 2001, he sold Great Plains Software to Microsoft for $1.1 billion. In addition, Doug said his reason to start the company in Fargo was that it was close to North Dakota State University so he can hire its stream of engineering students.

Microsoft

Following the transaction, Doug was made Senior Vice President of Microsoft Business Solutions Group, an offshoot formed by the merger of Great Plains and Microsoft. He continued at Microsoft until 2007 and was in charge of making corporate apps a priority for the company at that time. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s current CEO, has praised Burgum for “inspiring him to uncover the essence of Microsoft.”

Board Work

Doug has also served on the advisory board for Standford Graduate School of Business. Moreover, he was also a board member of Success Factor during the 2000s. In 2007, he became the Chairman of the board until the 2011 sale of the company to SAP.

He was the first Atlassian chairman of the board in 2012 when the company expanded from its initial board of three members (none of whom served as the official chair). In addition, he served as temporary CEO of Intelligent InSites twice between 2011 and 2014, a business for which he has been the executive chairman of the board since 2008. Furthermore, that same year he became a member of Avalara’s board of directors.

 Governor of North Dakota.

2016 election

In 2016, Doug announced his bid to run for the governorship of North Dakota as a Republican. Since he did not have any political experience, Doug lost the party endorsement contest to longtime Attorney General Wyne Stenehjem at the party convention in April.

Nonetheless, he easily beat Stenehjem in the primary election two months later to win the candidacy. Burgum defeated Democrat Marvin Nelson and Libertarian Marty Riske in the general election in November, receiving more than 75% of the vote.

2020 election

In 2020, he confirmed his bid to seek a second term as the governor of North Dakota. During the general election, he won with 65% of the vote against veterinarian Shelley Lenz.

Tenure

Doug took the oath of office as the 33rd governor of North Dakota on December 15, 2016, together with the running mate Brent Sanford, the 38th lieutenant governor of North Dakota.

Doug Burgum Height

He stands at an average height of 5 ft 8 inches.

Doug Burgum Net Worth

His net worth is estimated to be around $ 10 million.