Tadd Miller is the co-founder and CEO of Milhaus, a developer, owner and operator of high-quality multifamily projects. Miller has led the development, finance, construction and management of residential, hospitality and storage projects in excess of $3 billion. That includes a renaissance of downtown living in markets such as the Cole Noble and Fletcher Place neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Ybor City in Tampa, Crown Center in Kansas City and the Cincinnati Riverfront.
FIRST JOB: In fifth grade, “we would order Mr. Scribbs pizza from the pay phone outside the lunchroom at Reeths-Puffer Elementary in Muskegon, Michigan. We would have [it] delivered to the side door of the cafeteria and then resell it by the slice.”
HARD LESSON: “Expecting to be rewarded for loyalty and contributions on merit, when others were just trying to extract as much from me as possible.”
WISDOM FOR NEW EMPLOYEES: “Proximity is power. You can’t remote-in proximity or strong long-term relationships.”
WALKUP SONG: “We Built This City” by Starship
Shane Hageman is president of Hageman Group, a privately held family office with investments in real estate, agriculture and private capital. He oversees investment strategy and operations across the company’s main business segments-with a particular focus in recent years on purchasing developer-backed bonds and helping support housing, commercial and infrastructure projects in central Indiana. Before joining the family business in 2012, he practiced law at Bose McKinney & Evans.
CORE PRINCIPLES: “For me, business has always been about stewardship. One of the most important values my grandfather passed down to us was, ‘Leave it better than you found it.'”
SABBATICAL TOPIC: “Although I don’t intend to take a break from work, I plan to explore a sabbatical topic next year. This topic examines the intersection of theology and economics, specifying how to effectively pursue authentic human happiness and flourishing in a free-market society, particularly within a multigenerational family business.”
James Danko became Butler University’s 21st president in 2011 and has overseen a period of transformation that has included the inauguration of the Lacy School of Business Building, a more than $250 million capital campaign and securing the school’s spot in the Big East Athletic Conference. Later this year, the university will launch its Founder’s College initiative, which will allow students from underserved backgrounds the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree for approximately $10,000.
FOSTERING INNOVATION: Approach things under “the presumption of yes,” creating a culture of possibility. “It means approaching new ideas not with skepticism or bureaucracy, but with curiosity and openness. It doesn’t guarantee that every idea will move forward, but it ensures that creative thinking is encouraged, not shut down at the outset.”
BALANCING GOALS: “I focus on transparency, prioritization and communication. I work to ensure our community understands not just what we’re doing, but why. And I encourage a culture where we regularly step back to evaluate whether we’re reacting-or strategically responding.”
Gregg Keesling has developed two Employment Social Enterprises in Indianapolis-Keys2Work, which he founded in 1996 to help homeless and formerly incarcerated people transition into the workforce by providing employment assistance, workforce certifications, workplace mentoring and job-placement services, and RecycleForce, which he founded in 2004 to focus on electronic recycling and workforce reentry after prison. Last year, both enterprises moved into a permanent facility at 816 N. Sherman Drive. During this year’s General Assembly, Keesling lobbied successfully for the passage of House Enrolled Act 1289, which allows ESEs to compete more effectively for federal funding for programs that help people with barriers to employment.
CORE PRINCIPLES: integrity, opportunity, forgiveness
SOMETHING SURPRISING: He lived in Jamaica for 15 years and became a leader in the growth of tourism in Negril.
UNWINDING: Watching baseball-either the Cincinnati Reds or his 13-year-old grandson’s games.
Geoffrey Mearns joined Ball State University as its 17th president in 2017. Over the better part of the last decade, he has led the university through Destination 2040, a strategy that sets priorities in five key areas: undergraduate excellence, graduate education and lifetime learning, community engagement and impact, scholarship and societal impact, and institutional and inclusive excellence. An attorney by training, Mearns transitioned to higher education leadership after a legal career that included several years working in federal prosecutors’ offices.
LEADERSHIP LESSONS: “Surround yourself with people whom you want to emulate. But don’t simply try to replicate them. Instead, selectively incorporate what you learn from them into your own distinctive approach to leadership.”
BALANCING GOALS: “I know that my leadership team must regularly respond to immediate challenges. In order to remain focused on our long-term goals, though, we periodically pause to assess our progress on implementing the strategies that will allow us to achieve those goals.”
Fred Payne joined United Way of Central Indiana as its president and CEO in 2022 after serving as commissioner of Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development. Under Payne’s leadership, the organization has launched a five-year strategy to fight poverty, generated an economic impact report to better understand the economic outcomes of its grantmaking and relieved $239 million in medical debt for more than 100,000 Hoosiers.
JOB SWAP: “I would be a horologist as I enjoy time-keeping devices, how they are designed and work.”
LEADERSHIP LESSONS: “People become better leaders the more they learn about themselves.”
WALKUP SONG: “Atomic Dog” by George Clinton
Fred Glass was named president and CEO of Gleaners Food Bank in 2022, becoming just the fourth CEO in the nonprofit’s nearly 50-year history. A member of the Feeding America network, Gleaners is the state’s largest food bank and serves food-insecure Hoosiers in 21 counties across central and south-central Indiana. Before joining Gleaners, Glass was a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister and spent more than a decade as Indiana University’s vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics.
FIRST JOB: Newspaper routes for both the Indianapolis Star and News. “I learned responsibility, accountability and cash management-essentially how to run my own little business.”
SOMETHING SURPRISING: “I grew up in the back of my father’s skid row bar in downtown Indianapolis.”
WISH YOU’D KNOWN: “That no one really has it figured out.”
As president of the Center for Leadership Development, Dennis Bland oversees an organization that helps African American youth become professional business and community leaders. He began as a volunteer for 13 years, followed by working as an employee for 24 years. “I would want people to know that youth development is for me a vocation, a mission, a calling,” he says. Last year, the center announced it is expanding to some of the city’s highest-crime and lowest-income neighborhoods, thanks to a $200,000 grant from Bank of America. The center offers a raft of programs and classes, including its 13-week self-discovery program. Under Bland’s leadership, the center has successfully completed a $33 million campaign to expand program capacity and formed a partnership with 25 educational institutions that have awarded over $6 million in scholarships. The center recently completed an $8 million, 20,000-square-foot building expansion, including eight additional classrooms and the doubling of its College Prep Institute, its community-based college and career resource center.
David Rosenberg is the inaugural president and CEO of IU LAB, a first-of-its kind academic-industry initiative designed to position Indiana as a national leader in biosciences discovery. Supported by a $138 million Lilly Endowment Inc. grant, the goal of IU LAB is to harness Indiana’s biosciences discovery resources, leading to significant advancements in human health. Rosenberg sets the vision and implements the strategy to fulfill those goals, but given that the organization is a startup, “the responsibilities are pretty much whatever it takes to get the job done,” he said. Before joining IU LAB, he was Indiana’s secretary of commerce.
FIRST JOB: At age 8, he started a service for 25 cents a week to take people’s Sunday newspaper from the driveway to their door so they didn’t have to walk to get the paper.
CORE PRINCIPLE: authenticity
PETS: A 13-year-old dog named Louis. “He is the biggest protector of my three kids, even if our youngest, Jack, torments him.”
David Harris oversees all aspects of Christel House International, a global nonprofit that operates schools in five countries-India, Mexico, Jamaica, South Africa and the United States. He led development of the organization’s first strategy since the death of founder Christel DeHaan that is focused on expansion, with five new schools planned. The growth will increase the number of students served from 7,000 today to more than 18,000 in a few years. In 2006, Harris founded The Mind Trust, which has supported the launch of more than 50 schools since 2012, and The City Fund, an education philanthropy.
JOB SWAP: “I got to spend a little time with the great presidential historian David McCullough and loved sitting in his backyard listening to him tell stories. Apart from my utter lack of skill set, I’d love to be a presidential historian.”
SKILL YOU WANT TO LEARN: “My daughter is incredibly gifted in the arts. I’ve always wanted to cultivate a creative skill myself, like learning to play the piano well.”
