Business, Politics, and Higher Education with Mitch Daniels

Business, politics, and higher education: A chat with Mitch Daniels

Mitch Daniels is one of an elite few who have had highly successful careers that span politics, higher education, and business. Mitch has a long resume, but a few of the most notable positions he has held are Governor of Indiana, President Emeritus of Purdue University, and President of North American Pharmaceutical Operations at Eli Lilly.  I had the pleasure of sitting down with him to discuss everything from the lessons he learned from Ronald Reagan to his work in turning Purdue into a standout institution for STEM.

Working at Eli Lilly and receiving multiple job offers

Although Mitch has held quite a few different titles throughout his lifetime, he found his work at Eli Lilly to be particularly rewarding. For many people, the monetary reward might be the best part about working for Eli Lilly, especially when compared to compensation packages for public officials, but that’s not what excited Mitch about the opportunity. He loved the fact that he was working for a company that was saving lives at the end of the day. Eli Lilly has made huge strides in helping people deal with depression, diabetes, and countless other diseases, which is what made the work so rewarding for Mitch.  Additionally, he learned quite a bit about managing waste and abuse of power, two issues that have become incredibly prevalent in government and higher education.

What motivated Mitch to run for governor?

After working for Eli Lilly and the Bush administration as OMB Director, Mitch had a tough decision to make: What was he going to do for work?  Although it surely wouldn’t be difficult for him to find a new career, he had quite a few options after he finished his work with Bush. He chose to run for Governor. This was a massive step for Mitch, as he wasn’t exactly confident he would win since he didn’t have the name recognition that he has today.  Nonetheless, he wanted to continue doing work for the public sector and spend some time back home with his family.  When you couple this with the overall dissatisfaction people had for the leadership of Indiana at the time, the choice was clear for Mitch.

Mitch’s impact on Purdue’s affordability

Although higher education costs seem to beballooning out of control across the country, there is one place where theyaren’t—Purdue University. Although the cost of tuition has increased in nominalterms, it hasn’t increased in real terms since Mitch’s presidency began in2013. Tuition has not increased on a real basis, and the programs that Purdueoffers have gotten much better. Student enrollment has also increaseddrastically, which goes to show how much the work Mitch has been doing has paidoff.

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