Burton Grad has been an active participant in the computer software field, first with General Electric in 1954, with IBM starting in 1960, and then with his own consulting company starting in 1978. He developed the first commercial business applications for GE on the Univac I, worked on the design of automated factories in the 1950s and wrote a book (“Management Systems”) in the 1960s on how to design and implement information processing systems for businesses. He was responsible for managing the development of over 100 application program products for IBM and represented IBM in the software industry trade association.

As a consultant he has worked for over 200 clients over more than 30 years, doing strategic planning, due diligence studies and valuation projects for computer software and services companies. He specialized in business consulting, acquisition due diligence studies and in valuation of companies for tax and accounting purposes. He also served as a valuation expert in industry trials.

As a Business Consultant for American Business he has focused on a range of projects including relocating the principal offices, constructing business forecasts, preparing management financial reports and assisting in structuring agreements with principal market organizations.

He is currently the co-chair of the Software Industry Special Interest Group at the Computer History Museum, located in Mountain View, California, which has conducted pioneer meetings, collected oral histories and obtained business files from the software industry pioneers from the 1950s through the 1980s. He is also the co-editor of 4 special issues of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing on various software subjects.