08-19-2024
It is an exciting time to be at the Mitch Daniels School of Business. We have made great progress toward our goal of becoming a top-ranked business school. We have a record number of freshmen joining us for their first day of classes today. We have hired esteemed faculty and staff to help us provide exceptional student experiences for this growing student body, and have created and launched new, innovative undergraduate and master’s programs.
This fall marks my one-year anniversary as dean of the business school. Since coming to Purdue, I and my leadership team have made changes large and small. With our eye toward the future, we have crafted foundational pillars that will inform our continued transformation into a top business school:
Daniels School faculty, masters of their current fields, are able to see and steer toward what’s next, imparting thought leadership to peers and an ever-growing student body. Funding for academic chairs is a key component to raise the school’s profile on campus, nationally and internationally. We will build our faculty ranks, both to meet rapidly rising student demand and to expedite groundbreaking discovery in business and economics.
Every company today is a technology organization, and business leaders must understand how specific technologies can create a competitive advantage. Undergraduate programs in Integrated Business and Engineering and Business Analytics and Information Management, and the Master of Business and Technology, allow students to maximize Purdue’s STEM brand and own the intersection of business and technology.
Some of life’s most important lessons aren’t found in a book or lecture hall. Active transformational experiences like leadership immersion trips, case competitions, undergraduate research, corporate consulting, and study abroad will produce critical thinkers who see and tackle the world’s largest problems. Scholarships are vital to attract students who will soon thrive in a new building that fits our forward-looking culture and promotes active learning and design thinking.
Many students are influenced by a culture that increasingly doubts the value that profitable businesses offer society. Daniels School students will learn that free markets have raised living standards tremendously since our country’s inception. The Cornerstone for Business program exposes students to transformative texts with deep insights on the history, philosophy, and economic theory of market capitalism, and an annual symposium of thought leaders enhances the school’s reputation in this space.
The Daniels School provides opportunities for industry partners and alumni to connect with students and faculty in order to provide solutions to business challenges of today and the future. Companies can upskill their workforce, identify potential new talent, and benefit from the expertise of leading academics. The school also utilizes practitioners in the classroom who have “been there, done that,” providing a perfect complement to school faculty.
I invite you to follow our journey.
James “Jim” Bullard is the Dr. Samuel R. Allen Dean of the Mitch Daniels School of Business, a Distinguished Professor of Service and Professor of Economics, and Special Advisor to the President. Former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and one of the nation’s foremost economists and respected scholar-leaders, he started his position at Purdue on August 15, 2023.
