Those with Great Plains experience know the significance of the name, Arthur. He is also chairman of Atlassaian, a provider of healthcare operational intelligence software. The press release from Avalara, a sales-and-use-tax software company based in Bainbridge Island, Wash., notes that under Burgum Great Plains was a perennial member of the Fortune's '100 Best Companies to Work For' list. I don't think under Microsoft the MBS unit has ever been in danger of making the list, at least not since Burgum left in 2007, right before some guy named Nadella, who was supposed to succeed him was whisked off to other lands and Kirill Tatarinov took over the job heading Dynamics (nobody is really sure MBS still exists), which he still holds.
BURGUM JOINS AVALARA BOARD Featured
Must be something in the air. Last week, there was news Microsoft is planning a new fall conference in Fargo, N.D. This week, there's a speculation Tami Reller will leave Microsoft. And now, just as Microsoft Convergence is ready to kick off, comes the appointment of Doug Burgum, former president of Great Plains Software and former head of Microsoft Business Solutions, to the board of directors of Avalara. Besides his role in accounting software, Burgum is a founding partner of Arthur Ventures, a Fargo-based venture capital firm focused on software companies.
