Doug Burgum
Douglas James Burgum is an American businessman and politician who has served as the 55th United States secretary of the interior since 2025 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 33rd governor of North Dakota from 2016 to 2024.
Burgum was born and raised in Arthur, North Dakota. After graduating from North Dakota State University in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in university studies and earning an MBA from Stanford University two years later, he mortgaged 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. On November 14, 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Burgum as the United States secretary of the interior. On January 30, 2025, Burgum was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 79–18 vote. On February 1, 2025, Burgum was sworn in as the fifty-fifth U.S. secretary of the interior.
As Secretary of the Interior, he oversaw the Trump administration's crackdown on wind power, while promoting coal-fired power, expanded drilling on federal lands, and expanded metals extraction from federal lands and wildlife refuges.
Early life
Burgum was born on August 1, 1956, in Arthur, North Dakota, the son of Katherine and Joseph Boyd Burgum, who were both of English descent. 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 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.
Business career
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.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.
Governor of North Dakota (2016–2024)
Prior to running for office, 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.Elections
2016
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.2020
Burgum was reelected in 2020 with over 65% of the vote.Tenure
During both terms, North Dakota maintained a robust fossil fuel industry. Burgum set a goal for North Dakota to become carbon-neutral by 2030, which he planned to accomplish through carbon capture and storage technology to capture and sequester carbon dioxide in the state's geological formations and by using carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery and via agricultural practices that sequester carbon in soil. The 2021 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.File:President Trump Meets with the Governor of CO and the Governor of ND.jpg|thumb|right|Burgum with President Donald Trump and Jared Polis in May 2020
On December 20, 2022, Sanford resigned, citing a desire to return to the private sector. Burgum appointed businesswoman Tammy Miller as lieutenant governor. She took office on January 2, 2023.
Since taking office, Burgum has presented the Rough Rider Award, North Dakota's highest civilian award, numerous times. Those chosen have included Virgil Hill, Steve D. Scheel, and Clint Hill.
In January 2023, Burgum and other North Dakota officials threatened to sue Minnesota over a law that would require the state's electricity to be powered by carbon-free energy by 2040. 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 and noted that 84 North Dakotans who were on a church tour were stranded in Bethlehem as the fighting began.
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.
On October 22, 2023, a special session of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly was called after the North Dakota Supreme Court struck down the state's budget as unconstitutional, stating that the general budget did not meet North Dakota's constitution's single-subject requirement for bills. Burgum had to be present in Bismarck to approve the 14 separate budget bills that the legislature seeks to pass to recreate the initial budget. Burgum stated he expected to return to his presidential campaign within a week of the session being called, however, the special session resolved the budget and was closed in just three days.
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. Miller lost the primary to U.S. representative Kelly Armstrong, who won the general election.
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 Twitter 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. He was also endorsed by actor Josh Duhamel, who also endorsed him in his 2016 campaign.
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, 2023 debate in Miami.
On December 4, 2023, Burgum announced that he was suspending his campaign, citing frustration with the RNC's high threshold of donations and polling to qualify for debates.