R. Ethan Braden is a nationally recognized marketing and communications executive who has built a career helping consequential organizations earn relevance, trust, and reputation at scale.
As Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Texas A&M University, he leads the strategy to position, promote, and protect one of America’s most storied public institutions. He describes Texas A&M as a university built not simply to be the best in the nation, but the best for the nation.
Since arriving in Aggieland, Ethan has worked alongside a talented team to launch a values driven, insight-based brand platform, bring Texas A&M’s story to larger national audiences, and strengthen the university’s reputation far beyond Texas. During that period, Texas A&M has become the #2 most recognized public university in the country, generated more than 120 million YouTube views since August 2024, expanded national earned media, and earned recognition from Fast Company as the only university named both a Brand That Matters and one of its Most Innovative Companies.
Ethan’s work is grounded in the belief that great marketing should do more than generate attention; it should create mental availability with meaning that matters. At Texas A&M, that approach has included elevating stories of research, innovation, and service while also creating collaborations and activations across culture, media, sport, and lifestyle, including Haas Factory Team in NASCAR, Meyer Shank Racing and Felix Rosenqvist in IndyCar, Dude Perfect, Stetson, Poncho, Buc-ee’s, SXSW, Fast Company, Adweek, and others. In 2026, Ethan was the only higher education leader named to Adweek’s Marketing Vanguard.
Previously, Ethan served as Executive Vice President and CMO at Purdue University and Purdue Global, where he helped sharpen the institution’s brand, grow its national salience, modernize its marketing organization, and move Purdue into broader business, technology, and culture conversations. Before higher education, he spent nearly a decade at Eli Lilly and Company, leading marketing efforts for billion-dollar medicines including Cymbalta and Jardiance.
He has spoken at Salesforce Dreamforce and Connections, Adweek Brandweek, Google Marketing Live, and Content Marketing World, where he was named 2023 Content Marketer of the Year by the Content Marketing Institute. In 2020, he was recognized as Higher Education Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association. His work has been featured by Ad Age, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Morning Brew, and NPR.
He holds a BA from Willamette University, an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, and lives in College Station, Texas, with his wife and three children.