John Glover named Executive Director for Global Development and Innovation

January 10, 2022

I am excited to announce that we have hired John Glover as the executive director for Global Development and Innovation (GDI) in the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI). He will lead the GDI Division of PARI beginning on January 10, 2022.

John joins PARI with more than 25 years of strategic leadership and management experience within private, non-profit and governmental organizations providing development assistance funded by USAID and other donors. Most recently, John served as senior vice president for Plan International USA, an international network focused on assisting adolescent girls, children, and youth in their communities. In that role, John led a team of approximately 30 US-based professionals and approximately 150 country-based project professionals, providing multi-sectoral assistance in health, education, humanitarian response, workforce development, and youth advocacy as well as monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning. During the last 10 years, John led proposals resulting in over $400 million in USAID-funded projects, many with industry and foundations partners.

John is one of the first leadership hires for PARI, which was launched in 2021 as the non-profit applied research arm of Purdue University. PARI will significantly enhance Purdue’s ability to translate discoveries into innovative solutions and services for mission-oriented government, industry, NGO, and foundation partners, through increases in applied research and program personnel, state-of-the-art facilities, and infrastructure.

The Global Development and Innovation Division of PARI aims to become a trusted partner to forge practical development solutions based on science, technology, innovation, and research. Its applied research and practice areas could include humanitarian assistance, food security, education and youth development, environment and energy, and data science for development. It will engage Purdue’s faculty expertise, student talent and global partnerships while providing the people and systems to bid for and implement a variety of procurement and assistance mechanisms from USAID and other bilateral development funding organizations, foundations, and corporations.  

As executive director, John will be responsible for working with PARI and Purdue leadership to shape and grow PARI GDI, including developing a team, implementing the strategic vision for the division, and enhancing PARI GDI’s impact as a leading University-based international development organization.

Please join me in welcoming John to this critical role.

Sincerely,

Theresa Mayer