Gianforte headlines economic outlook tour

The founder of a multi-billion-dollar Montana success story — started in a spare bedroom in Bozeman — will be in Havre March 12 at the close of an economic outlook tour.

RightNow Technologies founder Greg Gianforte is the headliner of the 39th annual Montana Economic Outlook Seminar of the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, “Making Montana the First Best Place: How Entrepreneurship is creating High-Paying Jobs.”

Gianforte will be introduced by NorthWestern Energy CEO Bob Rowe.

Gianforte started his business in 1997, and by the time he sold it to California-based computer giant Oracle in 2012 for $1.8 billion, it employed 1,100 people, including at one time now-U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont. Half of the employees were in Bozeman, and 40 percent were graduates of Montana State University, a release from the bureau says.

The half-day Economic Outlook seminar will tour nine Montana cities, starting in Helena Jan. 28 and ending in Havre Wednesday, March 12, at the Hensler Auditorium in the Applied Technology Center at Montana State University-Northern.

The seminar runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and includes a local outlook by bureau Director Emeritus Paul Polzin as well as a Montana and national outlook by Director Patrick Barkey, and a local report on conditions.

Other presentations will cover topics including health care, agriculture, tourism, energy and manufacturing and forest products.

For more information or to register online for the seminar — $80 for a general ticket or $20 for a Montana University System student, faculty member or staff member — people can visit the Bureau of Business and Economic Research website at http://www.bber.umt.edu/.