Douglas James Burgum was born on August 1,1956 and is an American entrepreneur and politician serving as the 33rd governor of North Dakota since 2016.
27 Facts About Doug Burgum
2.
Doug Burgum mortgaged his inherited farmland after graduating from college in 1983 to invest in a small technology startup, Great Plains Software.
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Doug Burgum sold the company to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001.
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Doug Burgum has served as board chairman for Atlassian and SuccessFactors.
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Doug Burgum is the founder of Kilbourne Group, a Fargo-based real-estate development firm, and is the co-founder of Arthur Ventures, a software venture capital group.
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Doug Burgum was reelected by a wide margin in 2020.
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Doug Burgum was born on August 1,1956, in Arthur, North Dakota, where his grandfather had founded a grain elevator in 1906.
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Doug Burgum is the son of Katherine and Joseph Boyd Burgum.
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Doug Burgum attended North Dakota State University to earn his undergraduate degree in 1978.
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Doug Burgum later received honorary doctorates from North Dakota State in 2000 and from the University of Mary in 2006.
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Doug Burgum joined the company in 1983 and became its president in 1984 after leading a small investment group composed of family members in buying out the rest of the company.
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Doug Burgum has said he built the company in Fargo because of its proximity to North Dakota State University, in order to employ its stream of engineering students.
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Doug Burgum stayed with Microsoft until 2007 and was responsible for making enterprise apps a priority for Microsoft during this tenure.
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Satya Nadella, current CEO of Microsoft, has credited Doug Burgum with "inspiring him to find the soul of Microsoft".
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Doug Burgum has served on the advisory board for Stanford Graduate School of Business and was on the board of SuccessFactors during the 2000s, becoming its chairman from 2007 till the 2011 sale of the company to SAP.
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Doug Burgum is the founder of the Kilbourne Group, a real-estate development firm focused on Downtown Fargo.
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Doug Burgum has advocated for a convention center to be built in Downtown Fargo.
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In 2016, Doug Burgum announced his intent to run for governor of North Dakota as a Republican.
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Doug Burgum was sworn in as the 33rd governor of North Dakota on December 15,2016, alongside running mate Brent Sanford, the 38th lieutenant governor of North Dakota.
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Uniquely among Republicans, Doug Burgum has set a goal for North Dakota to become carbon-neutral by 2030.
21.
On March 20,2023, Doug Burgum vetoed a bill to raise the state interstate speed limit to 80 mph.
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Doug Burgum chose Tammy Miller, his chief operating officer, to succeed Sanford.
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Doug Burgum has made comments about President Joe Biden and his performance as president of the United States on Facebook and in public messages.
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Doug Burgum endorsed former president Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
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Doug Burgum has been very vocal on his support for the fossil fuel industry, especially in the Bakken region of western North Dakota.
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In July 2020, Doug Burgum called the 2020 Republican platform "divisive and divisional" on LGBT issues.
27.
On November 12,2021, Doug Burgum signed a law banning the teaching of critical race theory in North Dakota K-12 schools.