R. Ethan Braden

Ethan Braden serves as Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Texas A&M University. Formerly Ethan was executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for both Purdue University and Purdue Global which has been ranked as one of the Top Ten Most Innovative Schools in America by U.S. News and World Report for five consecutive years. Ethan leads the Purdue system in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap by passionately positioning, promoting, and protecting the $3 billion Purdue brand and portfolio worldwide. With Ethan at the helm of marcom, Purdue has earned impressive accolades as a global brand. In June 2023, Purdue was ranked #10 worldwide, in front of global icons including UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University and Yale University in American Caldwell’s Global University Visibility Rankings. In March 2023, Purdue University was named one of Fast Company Magazine’s World’s Most Innovative Companies – coming in at #16 overall, #1 in education and regarded as “the most innovative university in America” – for its advances in the vital field of semiconductors and microelectronics, making Purdue the only university on the list of Fast Company magazine’s prestigious Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World. This is after, in October 2022, Fast Company selected Purdue University as one of its “Brands That Matter” for a second time. As one of only 13 repeat winners in 2022 as well as the only university named a Brand That Matters in 2021 and 2022, Purdue was selected alongside iconic brands including Nike, 3M, McDonald’s, Ford, and Yeti. In 2020, Purdue University swept the American Marketing Association’s annual higher education awards when it selected Ethan as Higher Education Marketer of the Year and Purdue’s marketing and communications team as Higher Education Marketing Team of the Year. Ethan has appeared in the Washington Post, AdAge, The Hechinger Report, Fast Company, and The Morning Brew. He has spoken at Google Marketing Live, Salesforce’s Dreamforce and Connections conferences, AdWeek’s Brandweek, and he appeared on numerous podcasts related to brand management, leadership, and higher education. Ethan teaches personal branding to Purdue’s Division I student athletes in the university’s Optimizing Personal Brand and Image class, an innovative partnership between Purdue’s School of Business and Purdue Athletics in response to NIL. Ethan earned his M.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his bachelor’s degree in economics and Spanish from Willamette University (Salem, OR). Ethan currently lives in West Lafayette, Indiana, with his wife, Betsy, and their three children.