James Danko Biography
President James M. Danko became the 21st president of Butler
University in August 2011.
President Danko is an innovator at heart, and his nontraditional
path to the presidency makes him unique in the world of higher
education.
Prior to his academic career, President Danko was a successful
entrepreneur in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio for nearly two
decades. At age 19, he founded a medical equipment company - which
he later expanded into one of the largest health care,
rehabilitation and fitness equipment providers in the Midwest.
After he sold his company, President Danko taught
entrepreneurship and served in leadership roles at Babson College,
the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the University of
Michigan. In his role as director of MBA program innovations at
Michigan, he worked to link theory with practice in creative new
ways. During President Danko's time there, Michigan's MBA program
earned international recognition for pioneering a significant shift
in business pedagogy.
President Danko also brought his transformational leadership
approach to the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where
he served as associate dean and - most recently - to the Villanova
School of Business, where he served as dean.
During his Villanova tenure, financial gifts to the school
increased nearly five-fold - enabling it to implement bold efforts
including a brand new curriculum, a comprehensive student-services
wing, and cutting-edge research centers focused on real estate,
innovation, and analytics. In addition, the school jumped from
regional recognition to being ranked by BusinessWeek as #7
in the nation.
President Danko believes that empowering faculty and staff
members to succeed by matching them with the resources they need to
run with their ideas is the foundation of great academic
leadership.
He served as a founding board member and as president of the MBA
Roundtable, a worldwide consortium focused on curricular
innovation, and as a member of the international board of the
Graduate Management Admission Council.
President Danko has two daughters, Melanie and
Meredith, who live in New York City and Boston. He and his wife,
Bethanie, live on campus in the Butler president's residence. They
enjoy spending their free time visiting with family members and
vacationing on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina.