Greg Gianforte
| Greg Gianforte | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 17, 1961 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Gianforte |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater |
Stevens Institute of Technology (BEng, MS) |
| Religion | Nondenominational Christianity |
| Website | Campaign website |
Greg Gianforte (born April 17, 1961) is an American engineer, businessman, and politician.
Gianforte and his wife founded RightNow Technologies, customer-experience software company. The couple is known for their philanthropy and relationships with various Christian and conservative groups including Focus on the Family and The Heritage Foundation.
Gianforte holds a B.E. in electrical engineering and an M.S. degree in computer science, both earned at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1983.
Gianforte began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories and was one of the engineers on AT&T's StarLAN Network project.
Gianforte co-founded Brightwork Development, a developer of network management applications. He sold the business to McAfee Associates in 1994. Gianforte went on to serve as North American VP, where the company's North American sales operation grew from $25 million to more than $60 million in revenues in less than a year.
Gianforte founded RightNow Technologies in 1997 which went public in 2004 and was sold to Oracle Corporation for $1.5 billion in 2011. Before the sale, RightNow Technologies employed about 500 people at its headquarters in Bozeman, Montana and over 1000 people in total.
Gianforte is a board member of FICO and chair of the board at Petra Academy, a Bozeman, Montana Christian school.
Gianforte was chosen as the 2014 graduation commencement speaker at Montana Tech, a public science and engineering college in Butte. The choice of speaker resulted in a protest by students and faculty critical of Gianforte's financial support of a museum promoting young Earth creationism and his opposition to same-sex marriage. Gianforte's personal foundation has ties to conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation and religions organizations such as Focus on the Family.
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