David Meyer, co-founder and CEO of Titan Machinery Inc., will be presented with the University of Minnesota’s Entrepreneur of the Year award at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, at the Carlson School of Management 3M Auditorium, 321 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis. The presentation will be part of the annual Founders Day event featuring presentations from current students participating in a broad range of experiential courses in which they test, develop and launch new ventures.
“David’s business venture is a classic American success story: Starting with a single dealership in North Dakota, he built and continues to lead an over-$1 billion international organization that recently celebrated its tenth year as a public company,” said John Stavig, director of the Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. “We’re proud to recognize David as a role model who has not only, over the last 40 years, achieved unprecedented industry milestones, but whose pragmatic style inspires our students and alumni to take their own entrepreneurial journey.”
Meyer graduated with a degree from the Carlson School in 1975. Immediately after college he worked for tractor manufacturer J.I.Case, before joining an equipment dealership in Wahpeton, N.D. later that year. Two years later, the company expanded west to Lisbon, N.D., with Meyer managing the new dealership. In 1980, Meyer and partner Darrell Larson founded the corporation, known today as Titan Machinery, by purchasing the Wahpeton and Lisbon dealerships.
By 1985, Meyer had acquired all the company stock, and during the late ’80s and ’90s became an early consolidator of farm equipment dealerships. Teaming up with Tony Christianson and Peter Christianson in 2003, Titan Machinery expanded its footprint. Titan Machinery was named Farm-Equipment’s Dealership of the Year in 2006. The company went on to executed a successful public company IPO in 2007, expanded internationally, became the largest global distributor of the CNH Industrial Brands — Case IH Agriculture, New Holland Agriculture and Case Construction Equipment — and recently returned to New York City to ring the NASDAQ bell, in conjunction with an Investor Day celebrating Titan Machinery’s 10-year anniversary.
Meyer serves on the board for the University of Minnesota Foundation and is a frequent speaker in entrepreneurship classes. He is a proud third-generation alumnus of the University of Minnesota, and his youngest son, Grady, recently graduated from the Carlson School while also serving as captain of the University golf team. Meyer is a straight-talking entrepreneur with great vision and ability to get things done. Meyer’s steady-handed approach has enabled him to complete dozens of acquisitions and lead the consolidation of the global farm and construction equipment industry.
About the Carlson School of Management
Located on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis, the Carlson School of Management exemplifies a commitment to excellence through a focus on experiential learning and international education, and by maintaining strong ties with the Minneapolis/Saint Paul business community. Through its undergraduate and graduate programs, the Carlson School offers access to world-renowned faculty members and an alumni network of 55,000 people. To learn more about the Carlson School of Management go to carlsonschool.umn.edu.
About Titan Machinery
Titan Machinery Inc., founded in 1980 and headquartered in West Fargo, North Dakota, is a leading global dealership with a network of full-service agriculture and construction stores. The network consists of U.S. locations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, as well as European locations in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Ukraine. The Titan Machinery locations represent one or more of the CNH Industrial Brands, including Case IH Agriculture, New Holland Agriculture, Case Construction, New Holland Construction, and CNH Industrial Capital. Additional information can be found at titanmachinery.com.
