BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION – David R. Blegen

David R. Blegen is an experienced business and project manager across multiple business functions. He holds a BSME degree from South Dakota State University and participated in numerous management training programs with IBM.

Blegen spent 33 years with IBM and the last 9 years with Pemstar. He started his career defining manufacturing processes and workplace layouts as an industrial engineer and later moved in to manufacturing engineering assisting in applying, at that time, new technology – electro-discharge and electro-chemical machining – to volume production. He was part of the IBM team that advanced these technologies in the 1960s.

He has managed distribution initiatives with responsibilities for designing packaging for computers and assemblies; building and outfitting warehouses; and material handling, shipping, and receiving.

Blegen spent a large part of his IBM career in business and product management. During this time, he was responsible for product cost analysis and control, expense and capital budgets, P&L analysis, product pricing, forecasting and competitive analysis. He was a headquarters resource manager for a division of 27,000 people, a business manager for one of IBM’s early restructuring experiences in the mid 1980s and held positions in Rochester, Boca Raton and Atlanta with work assignments in Asia and Europe.

In his later career at IBM, he managed market planning and support programs. He led the implementation and managed Rochester’s first telemarketing organization for lead generation. At this time, utilizing the telemarketing center, he designed and implemented a customer satisfaction callback system, a major feedback mechanism in the Market Driven Quality Process. He developed the division’s application software strategy and designed, produced and distributed a worldwide application directory.

During his time at Pemstar, he was the business manager for the engineering operations responsible for project tracking and P&L analysis. He led acquisition analysis including due diligence, business valuation, terms and conditions and contracts. Blegen developed the business case justifying one foreign and one domestic new business operation and was business manager during the startups.

He was also a finance manager responsible for the Pemstar’s annual planning process across ten locations and managed the monthly corporate performance analysis and review. He also was responsible for quarterly business forecasting and the corporate quoting and pricing process.

Blegen has been active in the community and held board president positions for Rotary, YMCA Camp Olson, and the Olmsted County Historical Society. He served on the Red Cross board and is currently serving on the board of the South Dakota State University Foundation.