Mitchell Elias "Mitch" Daniels, Jr. (born April 7, 1949) is the current Governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. A Republican, he began his four-year term as Indiana's 49th Governor on January 10, 2005 and was elected to his second term on November 4, 2008. Previously he was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush and also worked for Eli Lilly and Company.

Mitchell Elias Daniels, Jr. was born on April 7, 1949 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania to Mitch Daniel, Sr. and Dorothy Wilkes Daniels, spending his early childhood years in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Georgia. Daniels moved to Indiana from Pennsylvania in 1959 while still in grade school. Daniels is a first generation Syrian American and is a supporter of the Arab-American Institute, having been honored by them for his work in the community.

Upon graduating from North Central High School in Indianapolis in 1967, Daniels was named Indiana's Presidential Scholar – the state’s top male high school graduate that year – by President Lyndon Johnson. Daniels earned a bachelor's degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1971 and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1979.