Doug Burgum, Senior Vice President for Microsoft Business Solutions Group, spoke atthe Entrepreneur Forum held Friday, February 9th at 3:30 pm at the west edge of campus in Clifford Hall Lecture Bowl 210.  The Entrepreneur Forum is a program of the UND Center for Innovation. 
 
The Forum topic will be “Entrepreneur Lessons Learned from Growing Great Plains Software.”   The event is free and open to the public.
 
“We are delighted Doug is willing to share his entrepreneur lessons with the UND campus and the region,” said Bruce Gjovig, Entrepreneur Coach and Director of the Center for Innovation. “Doug has been keenly interested in our entrepreneur business climate since he returned to North Dakota, Gjovig added, “and his entrepreneur success is an inspiration.  Burgum was the first recipient of the North Dakota Business Innovator of the Year Award in 1989.
 
Burgum literally “bet the family farm” when he joined a startup called Great Plains Software in Fargo in 1983. Under his leadership Great Plains grew from a mid-market accounting software firm with fewer than 50 employees into a publicly traded international corporation with 2,000 employees. In 2001 Great Plains was acquired by Microsoft Corporation and Burgum became senior vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS). In July 2002, Burgum led Microsoft’s acquisition of Navision a/s, a Denmark-based midmarket software company. The two companies combined to create Microsoft Business Solutions.
 
Gjovig added, “Doug’s visionary leadership focuses on innovative products, teamwork, quality and exceptional service. He is known for his inspirational keynote addresses for partner conferences and community events.
 
An Arthur, ND native, Burgum earned his undergraduate degree from NDSU in 1978 and his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1980. Before joining the then startup company Great Plains in 1983, Burgum was a consultant at McKinsey & Co. in Chicago.  He received honorary doctorate degrees from NDSU and the University of Mary in 2000 and 2006 respectively.
 
He currently serves on the advisory council for the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Burgum has established the Doug Burgum Family Fund, which focuses its charitable giving on youth and education. He lives near Fargo with his three children.
 
The Center for Innovation works to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and investment statewide and helps launch new technologies, products and ventures. The Center was among the first entrepreneur outreach centers in the nation and has helped launch more than 440 new products and ventures since it was formed in 1984. The Center has received six national awards for excellence in innovation and entrepreneurship, the most recent in 2004 being ranked #8 out of 700 Entrepreneur Programs in the nation by Entrepreneur Magazine and Princeton Review.  The Center is a division of the UND College of Business and Public Administration. www.innovators.net.

For more information, please contact Bruce Gjovig at the Center for Innovation, 777-3132, or Bruce@innovators.net www.innovators.net.