Mitch Daniels steps down as Purdue president, next president chosen
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Mitch Daniels is stepping down as the president of Purdue University.
The Purdue Board of Trustees has elected Dr. Mung Chiang to take his place, effective Jan. 1, 2023.
Dr. Chiang is the the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering and Executive Vice President for Strategic Initiatives. He’s been at Purdue University for five years.
Daniels had been the university’s president since 2013.
Chiang has as Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Prior to joining Purdue, he was an electrical engineering professor at Princeton University.
He has also founded three companies and was New Jersey’s CEO of the Year in 2014.
“It is the highest and most humbling honor to be selected by the Board of Trustees as the next president of Purdue University: the unique and most remarkable land-grant university in the land of the free,” Chiang said in a statement. “Throughout the past 153 years, and spanning from the Wabash River to the moon, generations of Boilermakers contributed to our state, to our country, and to humanity in immeasurable ways. There is no other place like Purdue.”
“Mung is the ideal choice to lead Purdue into its next ‘giant leap,’” said Board of Trustees Chairman Michael Berghoff in a statement. “The board could not be more confident in this selection, as we have had the opportunity to observe his performance across a broad range of duties for five years.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb issued this statement on the announcement:
“My partner and friend, President Daniels, is part of a generation of proud Boilermakers who take small steps and turn them into giant leaps. Purdue University always has been a world class institution with successful graduates spanning the globe, and Mitch has taken the university to even higher levels.
During his 10 years at the helm, Mitch has delivered higher education at the highest proven value, from freezing tuition during his entire tenure, to creating a national online university, establishing a network of Indiana STEM charter schools, and making record investments in world-class research.
He has always kept Purdue’s land-grant mission as its core strategy and spent each day opening the doors of higher education to every Hoosier willing to put in the work to be a Boilermaker.
I am eager to work with Dr. Mung Chiang as he takes the reins. I know he has had the opportunity to learn from the best and will keep the university’s forward motion moving at a fast pace.”
Daniels, 73, was previously Indiana’s governor from 2005-13.
This is a developing story and will be updated.