Mitch Daniels takes position with Carmel-based Liberty Fund

Purdue University President Mitch Daniels speaks during an announcement about the transformation of the IUPUI campus, on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. (IBJ photo/Mickey Shuey)

Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is set to join the Carmel-based Liberty Fund this week in the new position of distinguished scholar and senior adviser, the educational foundation announced Tuesday.

The position was created specifically for Daniels, who has spent the past decade as president of Purdue University. The Liberty Fund said Daniels’ work will focus on the creation of educational programming and partnerships that will strengthen the not-for-profit’s existing education programs.

The Liberty Fund is one of the richest foundations in the state, with about $341 million in assets as of April 2021. The pro-free-enterprise foundation, which has about 45 employees, was founded in 1960 by businessman and philanthropist Pierre Goodrich, the son of James Goodrich, Indiana’s 29th governor (1917-21).

The foundation raised its local profile by opening a $22 million headquarters at 111th Street and U.S. 31 in Carmel in 2016.

“I have watched for decades as the Liberty Fund, with impeccable scholarship and fidelity to principle, has labored to keep lit the lamp of freedom, and spread understanding of its historical and intellectual underpinnings,” Daniels, 73, said in written remarks. “Now, with individual liberty under relentless threats foreign and domestic, I’m grateful for the funds’ invitation that I try to assist it in its noble and essential mission.”

Nate Feltman, the Liberty Fund’s chairman of the board, said Daniels will help the organization extend its reach to new audiences while providing valuable advice and ideas for new educational offerings. The Liberty Fund uses a three-prong approach in its educational efforts by publishing books, conducting conferences and offering a wealth of online resources.

Feltman said the Liberty Fund will certainly benefit from Daniels’ vast network of contacts but even more so from the innovative thinking the former governor has been known for during his long career in business, politics and educational leadership.

“It is certainly a real opportunity for the Liberty Fund to be working with someone of Mitch’s caliber, who has lived out his ideas around individual liberties and done it in multiple ways,” said Feltman, who is also co-owner of IBJ Media Corp. and served as Indiana secretary of commerce under Daniels from 2006-2008.

“In his 10 years as president of Purdue, his focus on freedom of speech and on liberal arts education were exactly the kind of things that the Liberty Fund focuses on,” Feltman said. “And his practices as governor were so often in an effort to lift all Hoosiers, not just the most fortunate among us. Those were the traits that attracted us to Mitch.”

Daniels officially starts the new position on Saturday. The Liberty Fund did not disclose how much he would be paid.

Despite the urging of many in the Republican Party, Daniels ended speculation about a possible return to politics earlier this year when said he would not jump into the 2024 race for U.S. Senate. Daniels said it was unlikely he would run for political office again and would look for other ways to make contributions to society.

After leaving as Purdue president at the end of 2022, Daniels remained with the university as volunteer chair of the Purdue Research Foundation. The school said Daniels will continue to oversee the economic development pipeline and growth of the Discovery Park District at Purdue. He will also serve as liaison to the Legislature and Indiana government as Purdue establishes an independent presence in Indianapolis.