Bob began his professional career at North Dakota State University where he was for six years the Director of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute and Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics. At last count, Bob has taught in various capacities at six universities, not including his two year "underground" entrepreneurship correspondence course to a dozen Mainland Chinese students. Bob is the Founder of the National Council of Entrepreneurship Chairs, a Director of the International Institute for Entrepreneurship Development, and former Chair of the Nontraditional Academics Committee and the Distinguished Chairs Committee of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Bob also founded the CAFE Community And Family Enterprise small town development program, the University of South Dakota - Sitting Bull Tribal College Entrepreneurship Partnership, and the South Dakota Family Business Initiative. He is a former Director of the Vermillion Development Company. Bob has started four businesses including his latest venture with his wife Karen, "His Essence." "His Essence" wholesales scented products based on a "formula" from Psalm 45:8, "All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia..."

In 1993 and again in 2000 Dr. Tosterud was selected by the university's Student Association as University Of South Dakota "Teacher of the Year." In 1994 he was the recipient of the Freedom's Foundation $15,000 Leavey Award for "Excellence in Private Enterprise Education" and chosen as one of the nation's 10 best entrepreneurship educators by Inc. Magazine, Merrill Lynch, and the Kauffman Foundation. Bob's rural and small town development interest has taken him to South Africa where he served as a consultant for the Black Entrepreneurs and Enterprise Support (BEES) Team. His success at stimulating business and job creation in rural areas has taken him also to the "outback" of Australia and eastern Germany. Bob served as the Visiting Scholar in Economic Growth and Entrepreneurship at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C., from October 1998 to June 1999.

Bob received his BS and MS degrees in Business Economics from North Dakota State University and his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. While his roots go back to the Dakota's, Bob was born and raised in Des Plaines, Illinois.