R. Ethan Braden

I serve as Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Texas A&M University, where I lead brand, marketing, communications, and storytelling in service of the university’s reputation and national presence.My work is centered on a simple idea: helping consequential organizations articulate who they are, why they matter, and how to earn belief at scale. I’m drawn to places with real substance: mission, excellence, values, research, tradition, and service, and to the challenge of turning that substance into distinction, momentum, and trust.Before Texas A&M, I served as EVP and CMO at Purdue University and Purdue Global, where I helped build a nationally recognized marketing function and brand platform. Earlier in my career, I spent more than a decade at Eli Lilly & Company helping lead billion-dollar brands including Cymbalta and Jardiance. My work and perspective have been featured in Fast Company, The Washington Post, Ad Age, The Hechinger Report, and Morning Brew. I have spoken at SXSW, Salesforce's Dreamforce, AdWeek's Brandweek, Google Marketing Live, and keynoted Content Marketing World. In 2023, I was named Content Marketer of the Year by the Content Marketing Institute.