Douglas Burgum, MBA ’80, fled North Dakota’s winters for the sunshine and palm trees of Stanford, and he has photographic evidence of how enduringly warm his associations with the Farm are. Burgum, a former software entrepreneur who eventually sold his company to Microsoft, was an outsider Republican candidate who roared to victory in his home state’s gubernatorial election in November. A photo taken at the Governor’s Dinner in January shows Burgum and his wife, Kathryn, surrounded by former classmates from the Graduate School of Business. Among them: Silicon Valley luminary Scott McNealy, MBA ’80, venture capitalist and former NBA player John Hummer, MBA ’80, and former Disney executive Stan Kinsey, MBA ’80.
Burgum grew up in a town of 350 people and then traveled all of about 30 miles to North Dakota State University. He went from there to business school, his decision strongly influenced in that era before the web by comparing the snowy scene in Harvard’s brochure with the allure of Palm Drive in Stanford’s. As he recalls, “Silicon Valley was becoming a term and a concept” when he arrived. Stanford’s effect has never faded, as his career has encompassed software, real estate investment, philanthropy and politics. “The people, the experiences [and] the foundational learning have been essential.”
