Mark Putnam is the 21st president of Central College, a liberal arts college located in Pella, Iowa, a community of 10,000 and rooted in Christian and Dutch heritage. He was appointed to the role July 1, 2010, and inauguration ceremonies were Oct. 22, 2010. Prior to his presidency appointment at Central College, Putnam served as senior vice president for executive affairs, chief of staff and chief planning officer at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., where he held a succession of leadership roles over 10 years. He also held senior administrative appointments and positions at Connecticut College, Alliance Theological Seminary (N.Y.), Nyack College (N.Y.) and Pace University (N.Y.), and began his career in higher education as an admission counselor at Nyack College in 1983.Putnam authors a blog, Mark: my words, to encourage civil discourse. He's been published in the Chicago Tribune for Through the Eyes of an Eighth Grader and in The Des Moines Register for We need to learn to listen to our young athletes, which was reprinted in The Sport Digest. He also was featured in a podcast discussing his blog with The Chronicle of Higher Education and is a keynote speaker at the American Marketing Association’s 2011 Symposium. In 2010, Putnam was invited to participate in roundtable discussions in Washington, D.C., with the Department of Education, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) and Global Perspective Institute Inc. (GPI). Additionally, he accepted an invitation to participate in the Higher Education Working Group on Global Issues for the Council on Foreign Relations (N.Y.).