Doug Burgum

Douglas James Burgum (born August 1, 1956) is an American businessman and politician serving since 2016 as the 33rd governor of North Dakota. He is among the wealthiest politicians in the United States and has an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Burgum was born and raised in Arthur, North Dakota. After graduating from North Dakota State University in 1978 and earning an MBA from Stanford University two years later, he mortgaged an inherited farmland in 1983 to invest in Great Plains Software in Fargo. Becoming its president in 1984, he took the company public in 1997. Burgum sold the company to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001. While working at Microsoft, he managed Microsoft Business Solutions. He has served as board chairman for Australian software company Atlassian and SuccessFactors. Burgum is the founder of Kilbourne Group, a Fargo-based real-estate development firm, and also is the co-founder of Arthur Ventures, a software venture capital group.

Burgum won the 2016 North Dakota gubernatorial election in a landslide. He was reelected by a wide margin in 2020. In June 2023, Burgum launched a campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He ended his candidacy in early December 2023, and became an advisor on the Trump campaign's energy policy.

Early life
Burgum was born on August 1, 1956, in Arthur, North Dakota, the son of Katherine ( Kilbourne; 1915–2005) and Joseph Boyd Burgum (1917–1971). He has a brother, Bradley, and a sister, Barbara. He was born where his grandfather established a grain elevator in 1906. The company evolved into an agribusiness that the family still owns.

During his freshman year in high school, Burgum's father died. He later said that the experience shaped him as a person. He graduated from North Dakota State University (NDSU) in 1978. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and served as student body president. As a college student, he started a chimney-sweeping business.

Burgum later studied at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he befriended Steve Ballmer, who became CEO of Microsoft. He completed his MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business in 1980.

Great Plains Software
After earning his MBA, Burgum moved to Chicago to become a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

In March 1983, Burgum mortgaged $250,000 of farmland to provide the seed capital for accounting software company Great Plains Software in Fargo. He acquired a 2.5% stake in the company, and became its vice president of marketing. In 1984, Burgum led a group of investors, including relatives, who purchased a controlling interest in Great Plains Software from Joseph C. Larson, the company's founder, who retained a minority interest.

During the 1980s, Fortune magazine often ranked Great Plains Software among the nation's top 100 companies to work for. Burgum grew the company to about 250 employees by 1989 and led it to about $300 million in annual sales, after using the internet to help it expand beyond North Dakota. He said he built the company in Fargo because North Dakota State University was there; NDSU acted as a feeder school to supply engineering students to GPS. The company went public in 1997. In 1999 the company acquired Match Data Systems, a development team in the Philippines. In 2001, Burgum sold Great Plains Software to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in stock. Announced in December 2000, the acquisition was completed in 2001. According to Burgum, he held a 10% stake in Great Plains at the time.

Microsoft
After the sale, Burgum was named Senior Vice President of Microsoft Business Solutions Group, the unit created from GPS. At Microsoft, he was responsible for making enterprise apps a priority. In 2005, he expressed interest in stepping down as senior vice president to become chairman of Microsoft Business Solutions. In September 2006, he announced that he planned to leave Microsoft entirely by 2007. He was replaced by future CEO Satya Nadella.

Investment firms
In 2008 Burgum co-founded Arthur Ventures, a venture capital company that invests in businesses involved in technology, life sciences, and clean technologies. The group began operation with a $20 million fund and primarily invested in companies in North Dakota and Minnesota. By 2013 it had expanded operations into Nebraska, Missouri, Arizona, and Iowa.

Burgum is also the founder of the Kilbourne Group, a real-estate development firm focused on downtown Fargo. In 2013 he created plans to build the tallest building in Fargo—a 23-story mixed-use building—to be named either Block 9 or Dakota Place. It was completed in 2020 as the RDO Building. The company advocated for a convention center to be built in downtown Fargo. It acquired and renovated many Fargo properties, including the former St. Mark's Lutheran Church and the former Woodrow Wilson alternative high school. Several of the companies he has invested in are in Fargo.

In 2009, he was "urged to apply" for the position of president of North Dakota State University, but in 2010 he was passed over for Dean Bresciani.

Board work
Burgum served on the advisory board for the Stanford Graduate School of Business and was on the board of SuccessFactors during the 2000s, serving as chair from 2007 until the 2011 sale of the company to SAP. In 2012 he became the first chairman of the board for Atlassian, after it expanded from its initial board of three members (none of whom served as chair). During 2011 and 2014, he twice spent several months as the interim CEO of Intelligent InSites, a company for which he has served as the executive board chair since 2008. In the same year he became a member of Avalara's board of directors.

Philanthropy
The Burgum family donated approximately $800,000 to the Plains Art Museum in Fargo to support its Center for Creativity, which is named in honor of Burgum's mother, Katherine Kilbourne Burgum.

In 2001, Burgum donated a refurbished school building he had acquired in 2000 to North Dakota State University. It was named Renaissance Hall and became home to the university's visual arts department, major components of the architecture and landscape architecture department, and the Tri-College University office. In 2008, Burgum started the Doug Burgum Family Fund, which focuses its charitable giving on youth, education, and health.

Early involvement
Burgum endorsed Republican Steve Sydness for one of North Dakota's U.S. Senate seats in 1988. He supported the gubernatorial campaigns of Republicans John Hoeven and Jack Dalrymple in 2008 and 2012.

Governor
In 2016, Burgum announced his candidacy for governor of North Dakota as a Republican. With no formal political experience, he lost the state Republican party's endorsement to longtime attorney general Wayne Stenehjem, but defeated Stenehjem handily in the primary election two months later. Burgum faced Democrat Marvin Nelson and Libertarian Marty Riske in the November general election and won with over 75% of the vote. He was sworn in on December 15, 2016, alongside running mate Brent Sanford.

Uniquely among Republicans, Burgum set a goal for North Dakota to become carbon-neutral by 2030. He planned to pursue this goal while maintaining a robust fossil fuel industry, through the use of carbon capture and storage technology to capture and sequester carbon dioxide in the state's geological formations. He supports the use of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery. He supports agricultural practices that sequester carbon in soil. The announcement of the goal sparked $25 billion in private sector investment, according to remarks he made at the annual meeting of the North Dakota petroleum council. Burgum was reelected in 2020 with over 65% of the vote.

On March 20, 2023, Burgum vetoed a bill to raise the state interstate speed limit to 80 mph. During the 2023 legislative session, he signed a bill that exempts members of the North Dakota National Guard and reserve from paying income tax, and another that provided over $500 million in tax relief.

Burgum and other North Dakota officials threatened to sue Minnesota over a law that would require the state's electricity to come from sources that do not emit carbon dioxide. Minnesota governor Tim Walz signed the bill on February 7, 2023. In an attempt to mitigate the schoolteacher shortage, Burgum announced the creation of a Teacher Retention and Recruitment task force that would consist of multiple members, Burgum, and the North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction. In October 2023, Burgum condemned Hamas's attack on Israel and noted that 84 North Dakotans who were on a church tour were stranded in Bethlehem as the fighting began.

On January 22, 2024, Burgum announced that he would not run for a third term as governor. On February 21, he endorsed Lieutenant Governor Tammy Miller to succeed him.

2024 presidential campaign
In March 2023, Burgum expressed interest in running for president in the 2024 United States presidential election. On June 5, 2023, he posted a video to his X account teasing a "big announcement" for June 7. He formally announced his campaign in The Wall Street Journal the morning of June 7, with the launch of a campaign website and a rally in Fargo scheduled to take place later that day. After his announcement, Burgum began campaigning in Iowa.

Burgum was reported to have spent more money on advertisements than any other presidential candidate. He was endorsed by North Dakota's entire Congressional delegation, U.S. Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer and U.S. Representative Kelly Armstrong.

Burgum expressed support for the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. His support derived from his position that abortion restrictions should be left to states. He pledged that as president he would not sign a national abortion ban and that the president should not focus on culture war issues. According to Politico, Burgum sought to play up his stance as a China hawk by speaking of a cold war with China. On July 10, 2023, he began offering $20 gift cards for a donation of any amount to his primary campaign. A spokesman for Burgum acknowledged that it was an attempt to reach the threshold of individual donors required to participate in the first Republican primary debate. The promotion was successful. Despite its success, he was ridiculed on social media, with some users declaring that they had donated $1 to Burgum and $20 to Joe Biden's reelection campaign. Federal election officials have not said whether this and similar moves by other candidates is illegal. Burgum also qualified for the second debate, held on September 27. He failed to qualify for the November 5 debate in Miami.

On December 4, Burgum announced that he was suspending his campaign, citing frustration with the RNC's high threshold of donations and polling to qualify for debates.

Post-presidential campaign
During his campaign, Burgum said he would not accept the vice presidency or a cabinet position if he was not nominated for president, so he was widely expected at the time to seek a third term as governor in the 2024 North Dakota gubernatorial election. On January 22, 2024, he announced he would not do so.

Before the Iowa caucuses, Burgum endorsed former President Donald Trump. Afterward, he began campaigning for Trump, who praised Burgum and said he wanted him to be an important member of his next administration. Later in an interview, Trump said Burgum would be "very good” as vice president, but reiterated that he had not yet made any decision. Burgum spoke on behalf of Trump at the North Dakota caucuses. Trump ally and U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer said Burgum would be a clear front-runner for a cabinet position, most likely Secretary of Energy. Later during the primary season, Burgum was reported to be high on Trump's VP shortlist, and on May 2, Trump announced that Burgum was one of four confirmed candidates for vice president, alongside Senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and J.D. Vance. During the Republican National Convention, news broke that Burgum had not been selected as Trump's running mate.

Burgum is the Trump campaign's main advisor on energy policy. An Axios article detailed that the Trump campaign has sent Burgum as a surrogate to campaign events more than anyone else on Trump's shortlist for running mate.

Political positions
Burgum has made critical comments about Joe Biden and his performance as President of the United States on Facebook and in public messages. During his 2016 campaign he described himself as a moderate on social issues and a fiscal conservative.

Energy and environment
Burgum supports the fossil fuel industry, especially in the Bakken region of western North Dakota. He supports the Dakota Access Pipeline. He has said that American energy independence is an issue of national security. He derided what he called a "full-on assault of liquid fuels in this country" and has regularly criticized policies to subsidize electric vehicles. He called for opening Bureau of Land Management land for energy-related activities such as rare earth metal mining and oil and natural gas drilling. He promised to make North Dakota carbon neutral by 2030; he said he would loosen regulations for the gas industry, but also said he is committed to clean energy projects.

Burgum criticized the Biden administration for policies phasing out gas stoves in some forms of new housing.

Abortion
During his 2016 gubernatorial campaign, Burgum was noted for saying women were “unsafe” before Roe v. Wade. In 2024, he said his position on abortion had evolved.

In April 2023, Burgum signed a near-total ban on abortion in North Dakota. While campaigning for president, he said that he would not sign a nationwide abortion ban, preferring that individual states set abortion policy. He supported the Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Gun rights
Burgum received an A grade on gun issues from the NRA Political Victory Fund and signed numerous laws that ease access to firearms. He has touted his love of hunting.

National security
Burgum deployed the North Dakota National Guard to the southern border with Mexico numerous times to assist Texas. In April 2022, he and 25 other governors created the American Governors' Border Strike Force to help each other with border defense against illegal immigration and human trafficking. He argued that energy independence is key to fending off China and Russia.

During the 2024 Republican debate in Milwaukee, Burgum expressed concern about China, claiming it is America's "number one threat" and that the U.S. should put "anti-warship missiles in Taiwan". During campaign stops, Burgum expressed disdain for President Biden's handling of foreign aid to Ukraine and his hostage deals with Iran. He blamed Iran for the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, and said Iran was emboldened by Biden's release of $6 billion of frozen Iranian assets.

Cybersecurity
In 2019, Burgum signed legislation to develop a central cybersecurity operations center for the state's network of over 250,000 users and 400 state and local government entities under the Executive Branch's IT Department-North Dakota Information Technology (NDIT). At his direction, NDIT began a Multi-State Security Operations Center to facilitate threat intelligence sharing and coordinate cybersecurity operations between member states. In 2023, he signed House Bill 1398, requiring cybersecurity education for all K-12 Students, making North Dakota the first state to have a cybersecurity education requirement for its students.

LGBT rights
In July 2020, Burgum called the 2020 Republican platform "divisive and divisional" on LGBT issues. He signed numerous veto-proof bills sent by the North Dakota Legislative Assembly during its 2023 session that some have called "anti-trans", including a near-total ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

Education
On November 12, 2021, Burgum signed a law banning the teaching of critical race theory in North Dakota K-12 schools. During the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, he spoke of his belief that federal regulations are unhelpful to schools and that red-tape regulations harm teacher innovations.

Personal life
Burgum married his first wife, Karen Stoker, in 1991. They had three children before divorcing in 2003. In 2016, Burgum married Kathryn Helgaas. As first lady of North Dakota, Kathryn Burgum champions the Recovery Reinvented program on addiction and recovery.

While campaigning for president in 2024, Burgum said in an interview that he likes the music of Keith Urban and enjoys watching the television shows Yellowstone and Ted Lasso.

Awards and honors
Burgum received honorary doctorates from North Dakota State University in 2000 and the University of Mary in 2006.

In 2009, Burgum received the Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider Award from governor John Hoeven.