Dean M. Prestegaard, founder of DMP Development Analytics, is featured in a new success story from Veteran Business Project (VBP), a nonprofit that helps veterans achieve business ownership. The feature, “Where Economics Meets the Road,” traces Prestegaard’s path from nearly three decades of military service to founding his own economic consulting firm in Madison.

Prestegaard served 28 years in the Army Reserve and National Guard, with eight years enlisted and twenty as a commissioned officer, retiring as a Major in 2016. His military career spanned infantry and field artillery positions before shifting into logistics and sustainment support, where he coordinated the movement of soldiers, equipment, and supplies across multiple modes of transportation. He would later recognize that this role effectively meant managing a transload site, a connection that shaped his approach to civilian infrastructure work at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, where he managed the state’s freight program.

Prestegaard holds a BA in Economics from St. Cloud State University, an MA in Economics from West Virginia University, and completed doctoral coursework in Urban Studies at Cleveland State University. He also taught a graduate-level course on economic development planning at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

After a career that included the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and a role as a senior economist at HDR Inc., Prestegaard founded DMP Development Analytics in 2024 to bring regional economic development expertise to a broader range of public- and private-sector clients. He now chairs the Advisory Board of the Great Lakes Economic Development Council, serves on the board of the Wisconsin Economic Development Association, sits on the Wisconsin DOT Freight Advisory Committee, and was featured alongside his vice chair in Site Selection Magazine’s Area Spotlight in May.

The feature also credits the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber for connecting Prestegaard with the Veteran Business Project, which matched him with a mentor from an entirely different industry. Prestegaard said the conversations with his mentor, about finding clients and navigating the shift to business ownership, addressed the same core challenges regardless of industry.

Prestegaard is also a recent graduate of Leadership Greater Madison, a year-long program initiated by GMCC that connects local leaders with community challenges. For someone whose work has historically been regional or national in scope, he described the program as a deliberate step toward building deeper roots in the Madison community.

His advice to fellow veterans considering entrepreneurship centers on recognizing skills they already have. “Veterans already know how to lead,” he said, noting that many simply do not realize that is what they have already been doing.

Read the full feature at Veteran Business Project - Where Economics Meets the Road: Army Veteran Dean M. Prestegaard Brings 30 Years of Expertise to His Own Firm - Veteran Business Project 

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About DMP Development Analytics: DMP Development Analytics (DMP-DA) is a Madison, Wisconsin-based economic consulting firm helping communities across the Great Lakes region make more informed decisions about long-term public infrastructure investments. The firm applies the concepts, tools, and models of regional economics to issues that constrain local growth and development, including economic and fiscal impact analyses, economic development studies, market assessments, target industry studies, and manufacturing and freight policy development.