Purdue Board of Trustees elects officers

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University's Board of Trustees on Friday (June 16) re-elected Michael Berghoff as chairman and Tom Spurgeon as vice chairman and honored its outgoing student trustee.

Berghoff, of Indianapolis, is founder and president of Lenex Steel Corp., which designs, fabricates and installs structural steel throughout the Midwest. A 1985 graduate of Purdue with a bachelor's degree in industrial management, Berghoff has served as a trustee since 2009. While a Purdue student, he served as chairman of the Purdue Student Publishing Foundation and president of Theta Chi fraternity, and he also is a former president of the Purdue Theta Chi alumni corporation.

Spurgeon, who has served on the Board of Trustees since 2005, is an entrepreneur who has built companies throughout the United States. He was president and CEO of Lincoln Office in Peoria, Illinois, one of the country's largest distributors of Steelcase furniture. He sold the company in 2001 and remained with Lincoln as a consultant. He earned a bachelor's degree in industrial management from Purdue in 1961 and, following military service, received an MBA from Indiana University.

The trustees also elected the following:

* Corporate secretary - Janice A. Indrutz.

* Treasurer – William Sullivan, Purdue treasurer and chief financial officer.

* Assistant treasurer and assistant secretary - James S. Almond, Purdue senior vice president and assistant treasurer.

* Legal counsel - Steven R. Schultz, Purdue legal counsel.

* Assistant legal counsel – Trent Klingerman, Purdue assistant legal counsel.

Cameron Mann
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Cameron Mann, the current student trustee, who is ending her two-year term, was honored by the board with a resolution of appreciation for her service. Appointed by former Gov. Mike Pence in 2015, Mann graduated in May with a double major in agricultural sales and marketing, and agricultural communication. She received the 2017 Flora Roberts Award, which is presented annually to the outstanding senior woman. Mann, who grew up on her family’s farm in Cloverdale, Indiana, was involved in the Purdue Grand Prix Foundation, Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow and College of Agriculture Ag Week Task Force, as well as serving several other organizations.

Daniel Romary of New Haven, Indiana, on June 7 was appointed by Gov. Eric Holcomb to a two-year term to replace Mann as student trustee. Romary also will serve on the board’s Academic and Physical Facilities committees. Holcomb also reappointed trustees Michael Klipsch, Gary Lehman and Spurgeon to serve three-year terms.