Welcome to IBJ Media’s 2026 Indiana 250, our list of the state’s most influential and impactful leaders.
We are excited to be celebrating the fifth edition of this project, which we launched in 2022 with the goal of highlighting the people who are making an impact across Indiana’s business, government and nonprofit sectors.
The Indiana 250 is unlike other annual lists produced by IBJ Media, such as IBJ’s Forty Under 40 or The Indiana Lawyer’s Leadership in Law. In almost all of our programs, an individual can be honored only once ever in a given category. But the Indiana 250 seeks to recognize the state’s most influential leaders in each year, which means some names have been on the list every year and others have been on just once or twice.
In fact, 84 people have been on the Indiana 250 all five years. You won’t be surprised by many of those names, especially the CEOs of Indiana’s leading companies: Eli Lilly and Co.’s David Ricks, Elevance Health’s Gail Boudreaux, Cummins Inc.’s Jennifer Rumsey, Old National Bancorp’s Jim Ryan, OneAmerica Financial’s J. Scott Davison and Penske Entertainment Corp.’s Mark Miles.
The five-time list also includes educators such as Indiana University President Pamela Whitten, community leaders such as John Thompson, developers like Ersal Ozdemir, law firm leaders like Bob Hicks and health care leaders such as Dr. Lisa Harris.
But hundreds of other names have been on the list two, three and four times. And every year, we welcome dozens of new leaders.
This year alone, we’ve added nearly 60 people to the Indiana 250 for the first time. Those leaders include Newfields CEO Le Monte Booker, IndyCar champion Alex Palou, American Red Cross Regional CEO Terry Stigdon, Indiana Fever Team President Kelly Krauskopf, Eli Lilly and Co. Executive Vice President Edgardo Hernandez and Quarterline & Rock co-founder Susan Ford.
These new names represent individuals who have more recently come to the forefront of their respective fields or in community leadership. There might be no better examples than Indiana University football coach Curt Cignetti and IU Intercollegiate Athletics Director Scott Dolson, who built the Hoosiers into a national championship team against the odds.
As an active IU graduate and devoted Hoosiers fan, I can attest to the impact that championship has had not only on the university but on the entire state.
Of course, our goal is always to represent leaders from across Indiana. To that end, we welcome Sweetwater Sound CEO Mike Clem of Fort Wayne, University of Notre Dame President Robert Dowd of South Bend, Alliance RV co-founder Coley Brady of Elkhart, Ball Brothers Foundation CEO Jud Fisher of Muncie and Indiana State University President Mike Godard of Terre Haute.
This statewide focus is part of IBJ Media’s effort to cover business and community across Indiana through our Inside INdiana Business television, radio and online coverage and through The Indiana Lawyer, which covers the legal community statewide.
And we are on the road again with our Innovate Indiana series, with stops already this year in Fort Wayne, Evansville and Valparaiso and events planned in Terre Haute on Aug. 13, Clarksville on Sept. 3, Muncie on Sept. 10, South Bend on Oct. 28 and Bloomington on Nov. 5. We’ll finish the series in Indianapolis on Dec. 10.
Go to IBJ.com/events to learn more.
We celebrated this year’s Indiana 250 leaders at an exclusive reception July 21 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, an event made possible with the support of our host sponsors, the museum and Penske Entertainment.
Thank you, as well, to our title sponsors: Aaron Wealth Advisors, CareSource, Ice Miller and Pacers Sports & Entertainment.
The premier sponsors are Lucas Oil Products and First Merchants.
Enjoy the profiles on the following pages and let us know what you think—and who should be included next year—by emailing us at Indiana250@IBJ.com.
Nate Feltman
IBJ Media CEO and publisher