Press Release : MSU-Northern Founders’ Excellence Winners

A special graduation week event, Founders’ Day at Montana State University-Northern, recognizes and honors individuals who promote the ideals of service and excellence. This is a special time when alumni, friends, faculty, and students gather to rekindle the spirit of campus life and pause to reflect upon the people, places, and events that have helped create an environment for lifetime learning and participation in the Northern tradition.

MSU-Northern Founders’ Excellence Awards will be presented to Tony Preite and Greg Jergeson. They have received outstanding recognition within their own professional fields and/or contributed to the growth and development of the campus.

The presentations will take place during the Founders’ Excellence Dinner Friday, May 9th, 2008 in the Student Union Building Dining Room at 7:00 p.m. Tickets for this prestigious event are $20.00 a person and are available through the MSU-Northern Foundation by calling 265-3711 and must be purchased by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, May 5th.

Greg Jergeson
Greg Jergeson was born December 29, 1950 in Havre, Montana. He grew up on the family farm south of Chinook and graduated from Chinook High School in 1969. Jergeson attended the University of Montana where he was active in student government, graduating from in 1974 with a B.A. in Political Science.

Jergeson and his wife, Barb, have two daughters, Cassie and Stefanie. Until the fall of 1995, they operated a family farm south of Chinook where they raised grain and livestock. Since then, they have made their home in Chinook. From July 1995 until he took office as Public Service Commissioner, he was employed by the MSU-Northern Foundation in Havre where he worked as Director of Grants and Business/Industrial Linkages for the campus.

A Democrat, Jergeson was first elected to the Montana Public Service Commission in 2002 and was sworn in as Commissioner on January 6, 2003. His current term on the Commission ends January 2011. Prior to his election to the Commission, Jergeson served in the Montana Senate.

State Senator for 22 years, 1975-81, 1987-2003
Senate Agriculture Committee, 20 years, Chair in 1991
Senate Finance & Claims Committee, 16 years
Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, 12 years
Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural Resources, 4 years
Senate Highways Committee, 6 years
Legislative Audit Committee, 13 years, 4 as Chair
Legislative Finance Committee, 6 years, 2 as Chair
Senate Majority Leader, 1993, 2 years

Govern Ted Schwinden appointed Jergeson to the Montana Board of Investments for a four-year term in 1981. He was also appointed to the Montana Consensus Council for four years by Governor Marc Racicot.

Anthony J. Preite
Anthony J. Preite, Montana Director of Commerce, was born and raised in Havre, Montana. He attended St. Jude’s Grade School, Havre Central High School, and graduated from Northern Montana College in 1963. He taught government and social studies and was coach/athletic director at Turner High School from 1964-1968.

In 1968, Preite accepted the position as Community Development Specialist, with Bear Paw Development in Havre, MT. His duties included coordinating economic growth activities and implementing the overall Economic Development Plan for Hill, Blaine, and Liberty Counties and Fort Belknap and rocky Boy’s Indian Reservations in North Central Montana. He was named Executive Director of Bear Paw Development in 1969.

From 1971-1973, he worked in Seattle, Washington as Special Project director (Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and California) of the Economic Development Administration for the U.S. Department of Commerce. He was instrumental in developing dozens of successful economic and community growth projects resulting in infrastructure improvements and the creation of hundreds of job opportunities in the multi-state area. In 1973, Preite returned to the Executive Director position with the Bear Paw Economic Development District. He was selected as the 1993 winner of the Forrest Koch Award for the Excellence in Economic Development, from the Denver Regional Office of the Economic Development Administration.

Preite was appointed by President Clinton as the State Director of Montana for the Farmers Home Administration in the spring of 1993. Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reorganization legislation was passed by Congress on October 1, 1994, and along with passage of the 1996 Farm Bill on April 4, 1996, the agency name change to USDA-Rural Development. In 1995, he received the U.S. Department of Agriculture Honor Award, one of the highest awards the Secretary of Agriculture can bestow upon an employee.

As Head of USDA Rural Development, Preite supervised three departments: Rural Housing Service (RHS), serving communities and very low to moderate income families; Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS), providing business loans and guarantees; and Rural Utilities Services (RUS) benefiting communities and towns. These three departments have a Montana portfolio of almost half a billion dollars. In 1997, Preite was chosen as the Outstanding Fifty State U.S.D.A. Director. This was the first time the U.S.D.A. presented this prestigious award.

In December of 1999, he was selected as the EDA, Denver Regional Office Director. This is a nation-wide competitive Senior Executive Service position. As regional Director, he supervised activities in ten Western and Mid-Western states.

In October of 2003, Preite was appointed as Director of Space Commercialization and Director of Economic Development Outreach by the University of Montana in Missoula. In November of 2004, he was selected by Governor Brian Schweitzer to become Director of the Montana Department of Commerce.

Preite has served as President of the Montana Economic Development Association and as Chairman of the governor’s Economic Development Council. He has been a member of the Montana Private Industry Development Council, the National Association of Development Organizations and is a member of the Senior Executive Service.

Preite and his wife, Betty, reside in Helena. They have a son, Robert and wife Barbara, of Salt Lake City; a daughter, Julie and husband Randy Tillman, of Spokane, Washington and four grandchildren Anthony, Annelise, Dominic and Emelia.