About

The Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence serves as a catalyst for developing leadership for the 21st century. As part of Purdue University’s ambitious Discovery Park, the Butler Center provides research support, educational seminars, workshops, and experiences that enhance both aspiring and experienced leaders’ understanding and ability to manage today’s complex institutions of various types particularly colleges and universities. The mission of the Center is to develop leadership capacity through research, education and collaborations that helps advance and broaden representation in academic decision making.

In October 2004, Susan Bulkeley Butler a former member of Purdue ‘s Board of Trustees and a 1965 alumna of the Krannert School of Management, donated $3.65 million to endow the Center for Leadership Excellence and a chair with the same name. Butler, who retired in 2002 from Accenture as the first female managing partner, serves on he Campaign for Purdue Steering Committee, the President's Council, Women of Purdue, Krannert School of Management Dean's Advisory Council and Purdue Research Foundation board of directors. She also is a member of the Board of Directors for Leadershape and Junior Achievement. In 2003, she created the Susan Bulkeley Butler Institute for the Development of Women Leaders, which offers leadership training for women. Butler, a inspirational speaker and author, recently published Become the CEO of You, Inc, a how-to primer on planning and developing one’s career and personal potential.

Leadership

Butler also established the Susan Bulkeley Butler Chair for Leadership Excellence. . In 2008, Beverly Davenport Sypher was named the first Susan Bulkeley Butler Chair for Leadership Excellence. She is Purdue’s associate provost for special initiatives and in this position has primary responsibilities for faculty affairs and academic leadership development. Beverly serves as Purdue's liaison for the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's Academic Leadership Program and is the institutional representative to Indiana’s Women in Higher Education Council. Sypher, also a  professor in the Department of Communication, is an award winning teacher and author of three books on the contemporary work world.