Governor picks two women for Purdue board

By TANYA BROWN
tbrown@journalandcourier.com

Two women were welcomed to Purdue University's Board of Trustees on Friday.
Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed JoAnn Brouillette, of West Lafayette, and Susan Butler, of Tucson, Ariz., to replace outgoing trustees Barbara Edmondson and Robert Peterson.

Brouillette is a managing partner of Demeter LP, a family-owned grain and commercial warehouse business in Fowler.

Butler is chief executive officer of The Susan Bulkeley Butler Institute for the Development of Women Leaders.

Neither trustee could be reached for comment. In a statement, Daniels expressed his confidence in their abilities.

"JoAnn and Susan are outstanding results-oriented business leaders. Both will help (Purdue) president (Martin) Jischke push Purdue to reach even higher performance and strengthen the university's impact in Indiana and around the world," Daniels said.

The women, whose terms begin immediately, will bring the number of females regularly involved in trustee business to four.

Student trustee Rachel Cumberbatch and Purdue provost Sally Mason, are the other two.
Brad Rateike, a media spokesman in the governor's office, said Daniels did not intentionally choose females to fill the seats of what has historically been a male-dominated board.

"The governor obviously looks at diversity of all kinds, but in the end it is the best and brightest candidates who are chosen," said Rateike. "In this case, we found two highly qualified individuals who both happen to be women."

Brouillette is a member of the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy, Indiana Agriculture Advisory Committee, and the National Grain and Feed Association executive committee and board of directors and is the vice chairwoman of the Lafayette-West Lafayette Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. She is a graduate of Hanover College.

Butler, a Krannert School of Management graduate and published author, retired from Accenture in 2002, where she had been the company's first female partner. Susan was the Managing Partner for Accenture’s Office of the CEO.

By the end of her tenure she was managing partner for the office of the chief executive officer, the president of Accenture Foundation, and a member of the company's executive committee.