Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum

Doug Burgum was raised in Arthur, North Dakota.

Burgum worked as a chimney sweep to help pay his way through North Dakota State University before earning an MBA from Stanford University. In 1983, Doug literally “bet the farm” to provide seed capital for a software startup called Great Plains.

Doug led Great Plains through a successful IPO and grew the company to over 2,000 employees before its acquisition by Microsoft. Burgum remained with Microsoft for six years as the Senior Vice President of Business Solutions.

Doug later co-founded Arthur Ventures and served as chairman for international software companies including Atlassian, SuccessFactors, and as a board member for Avalara.

In 2016, Burgum was elected to serve as North Dakota’s 33rd Governor. In 2020, he was re-elected in a landslide. Under his leadership, North Dakota passed the largest tax cut in state history and dramatically reduced red tape.

As a testament to Burgum’s leadership, Forbes named him “America’s Best Entrepreneurial Governor.” During his tenure, North Dakota experienced the highest growth in real GDP and had the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

Burgum has three adult children. He is married to Kathryn Burgum, a nationally recognized advocate for addiction recovery.