A native of Makoti, ND, Dale Haugen grew-up on a wheat farm.  Following graduation as an electrical technician from the North Dakota State School of Science he worked for an electric transmission utility, Central Power Electric Cooperative in Minot, ND. Dale continued his engineering studies and graduated from North Dakota State University in Fargo.  He then served as a Field Engineer with SSR Consulting Engineering in Bismarck until joining Williams Electric Cooperative as Engineering Manager in Williston, ND. In 1991 Haugen became the General Manager of the Williams Electric Cooperative and Mountrail Electric Cooperative which merged to become Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative (MWEC). MWEC is a 22,000-meter, $1.1 billion asset cooperative located in northwest North Dakota right in the heart  of the Bakken fields.

Dale Haugen has worked with electric cooperatives for more than 43 years with experience in the engineering, infrastructure asset management, utility financial planning and General Management. He has overseen the electric infrastructure growth and development of MWEC from its early days with 28 megawatts of daily demand to the current level of over 750 megawatts and participated in all facets of the growth of the Bakken.

During his tenure as General Manager of MWEC, he has won the American Council of Engineering Award from North Dakota and neighboring Montana, for his work on “Program Management for Power Growth; Bakken Boom”. In February, 2023, Dale was recognized with the Cooperative Leadership Award by the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives (NDAREC). The award represents “exceptional leadership and unusual devotion to duty”.