Today the Fed performs a number of important functions, all with the ultimate goal of promoting a healthy US economy. It's a major responsibility to be on the Federal Open Market Committee. You have to track the economy every day. One of the Fed's most recognizable functions is conducting US monetary policy, which involves influencing interest rates and the availability of money and credit in our economy. The world is watching, so it does matter quite a bit what decisions get made.
Jim Bullard, a key decision maker on which direction to take the US economy. He spent 15 years as head of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, now bringing that real-world experience to guide the next generation of business leaders at Purdue.
I appreciate Purdue taking a chance on me. I'm not coming directly from academia, so this is a match made in heaven.
And that's join us for a conversation with the former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the first leader of the new Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business at Purdue, Jim Bullard, my guest this week on the Business and Beyond podcast.
Hello and welcome to the Business and Beyond podcast presented by PNC. I'm Gary Dick. Jim Bullard played a major role in shaping economic policy in the US for a decade and a half. He was born in Wisconsin, raised in Minnesota, got his PhD from IU, and now he's back in Indiana. And I am pleased to be joined on the podcast this week by Jim Bullard. Jim is the former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and currently the inaugural dean of the Mitchell E. Daniels School of Business at Purdue University. Jim, welcome to the podcast.
Great to be here. Thanks for having me today.
Yeah, you bet. You know, you spent 15 years leading the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, certainly one of the most respected economists really around the globe, not just in this country. What prompted you to jump at the opportunity to lead the new Daniels School of Business?
Oh, it's a great opportunity. There's a lot of passion behind the project and money and a lot of great students here. So really appreciate the chance to get back to academia and lead this effort and try to create a new and distinctive business school for Purdue.
Yeah, you talk about getting back to academia. So you were at the Federal Reserve but had previously been in academia. Talk about that background and why I guess it would be a natural for you to take this role.
Yeah, before I was president, I was on the research staff at the St. Louis Fed for years. And you know, that job is really an academic-style job. You are expected to write papers, get citations, go to conferences. My co-authors were all at universities around and elsewhere in the Fed. So there's a big component of the Fed that has a big academic standing, so that's what I was part of.
Okay, talk about the Mitchell E. Daniels Junior School of Business at Purdue. You mentioned this is a big undertaking. It certainly is, leading what is essentially a remake of what folks certainly around Indiana and in the country have known or had known as the Krannert School of Management for many years. Now putting the Mitch Daniels name on the school. Talk about where things are in the evolution because this is a big remake. You have a new building, a lot of things going on.
Yeah, I just think there's an outstanding opportunity to create a distinctive brand among business schools. Purdue is number four in the nation in engineering. Next year it's likely that Purdue will turn out more engineers than any place else in America. And you know, this kind of idea, excellence at scale, is really important to Purdue. But for the business school, I think we want to get bigger. We want to integrate even better with engineering and science and other great programs that we have around Purdue and create this brand that takes advantage of the fact that technology has become such an integral part of business. Technology was always important, but with the rise of Silicon Valley, business and technology have become the same thing. So the idea is to create a distinctive brand around that and really push Purdue to challenge the top business schools in the nation.
You talk about brand, which is so important these days. I think it's always been important, but it's at the forefront, I think, more so today. Purdue certainly has a distinctive brand that is recognized around the country, around the globe. What does having the Mitch Daniels name on the school, from a branding perspective, add to your efforts?
Well, it's an honor and a privilege to have his name on the school because he was such a consequential leader for Purdue and not just for Purdue, but I think for all of America, showing us how higher education can be done differently and better than it has been done historically. So I just think it's fantastic. It's been great for fundraising, great for enthusiasm around the project, and I just think it'll be a fitting naming to commemorate Mitch's great run here at Purdue.
Talk about education in a different way. Talk a little bit more about that in terms of the Daniels School of Business. Will it mean a shift in some ways in terms of the way you deliver education, the way you connect with the business community, business and industry, those types of things? Is it a kind of a new day when it comes to that?
You know, I think the Krannert brand has been outstanding, but we're going to build on that and do even more. I think the original idea was perfect, but the business world has changed since then and technology has come to the fore, not just manufacturing technology, but across the whole gamut. Every business is a technology business today, and that gives us the opportunity to really build on that idea and create something very distinctive. So I think one of the things that we're trying to do here is think of new programs, new ways to push that forward. We have the integrated business engineering degree, which has been very popular, and I think the name says it all: integrated business engineering. We have the business analytics degree and machine learning, artificial intelligence becoming more and more popular in the business world. So we're playing up our strengths in that area. The campus has a big initiative to push harder on computing generally, but computer science in particular. We plan to partner with that part of the campus as well to expand that part of the program. So there's just a lot to like about integrating business with engineering and getting to great programs for our students that allow them to succeed going forward. It's not enough just to know the technology. You have to know the technology these days and have business acumen. You can't just have one. If you just know the technology and don't have the business acumen, you're going to get beat up in the business world. And if you just have business acumen and you don't know the technology, you're also going to get beat up in the business world. So we're going to be able to put those two together, which has been going on for a long time, but even better than before, and really challenge the top programs in the nation.
You view this, I sense, as a real opportunity from a competitive standpoint to take advantage of Purdue's strengths in technology and engineering and the business side of things. And as you produce and add to that talent pipeline, producing graduates that have the skills that are truly relevant today.
That's absolutely the idea. And I think, you know, there are many other initiatives going on around campus which we'd like to connect with. Lots of ideas about entrepreneurialism, you know, starting new companies based on new technologies, partnering more, even more than we already do. We do partner a lot with corporate America, but even more than that, and continuing to make Purdue the most recruited campus in the nation because of the great students that we're turning out. 70% STEM students on campus today, and it's probably even rising from there. So a lot to like about the current situation here.
You've just passed, I think, or approaching six months on the job officially. So about a half a year into this, a lot of things going on there. I know looking at some of the background in terms of the establishment of the Daniels School, you kind of had a three-pronged approach to recruit talent, secure resources, and develop strategies. How would you assess your progress six months in?
Well, resources took a big step forward when we got the grant from the Lilly Foundation, $100 million to campus, $50 million to the Daniels School. That's supplementing many other supporters that have offered money to help us, and we really appreciate their gifts and their support. I think on the strategy side, we're pursuing the Masters of Business and Technology, which I think will challenge the MBA degree in the future. This year we're trying to get an inaugural class to start that up and running again. The concept there is that you would want the graduate degree that not only prepares you on the business side in general terms, but also prepares you on the technology side to run the business or run the unit within a larger corporation where you understand the technology well enough to understand what the next steps have to be to make that product better and to understand where you could be disrupted from someone else somewhere else in the business world that's coming after your cheese, as they say. So we're making great progress so far, lots of enthusiasm. So I love it. It's a lot of fun.
Yeah, I mentioned some of the major funding you're getting. Some of that will go to a new building, right? So in terms of a physical presence there, talk about the new building that will house the school.
Yeah, one thing about the school here is that this is about twice as many undergrads as we would have had even a few years ago. So we have two buildings on campus dedicated to the business school. We're going to build a third. Groundbreaking starts this coming summer. It should be finished by fall of 2027. You have to get going on these things in order to have the physical plant in place in the future. So we are growing. Applications were up double this year. Admits are up double digits this year. So we'll see what the final class turns out to be later, but it certainly looks like we're going to continue to grow. I'd like to be too big to ignore. We have all these great STEM students already, one of the top recruited campuses in the nation. So I think we can do even more with that and make sure our students are getting excellent jobs after their training here on campus.
How about, I just thought of this, but the Purdue in Indianapolis campus, if you will, an extension of the West Lafayette campus. How does that play into the Daniels School of Business in connection to the Indianapolis business community?
Yeah, that's something we're working on now and strategizing about now. I think for July 1st, 2024, which is only a few months away, we will have just a few things that are going on, but over time we'll be able to develop this out more explicitly, partner with the corporate community in the Indianapolis area, and we really look forward to having a great presence in Indianapolis. For this year, you have to split up IU and Purdue. You've got faculty issues, student issues, and stuff like that. So for this year we're just trying to get settled. But I think once we get two or three years out, we'll be in great shape.
Hey, you mentioned you're having a lot of fun. Can you tell me what's the best part of being a business school dean?
Well, did I mention our basketball team doing pretty well?
Yeah, no, it's fun to be in the middle of the action as far as Big Ten sports. Jane and I have always loved hanging around the Big Ten, and we know a lot of people on many different campuses around the conference. So it's been a lot of fun to be at the games and be hanging out.
Well, you'll get some new connections too here coming up as you get USC and UCLA and Oregon. I can't quite fathom going to the game and seeing USC on the court, but I guess that's what we're going to see very soon here.
Got to ask you your take on the national economy. Want to get your take on Indiana too, but as you look at the national economy, and certainly it's in greater focus in this election year as well. We see inflation and energy prices and food prices in the headlines impacting consumers' pocketbooks. You saw employers adding 350,000 plus jobs in January. Conflicting assessments. How would you characterize the state of the national economy as we begin 2024?
