HELENA B. FOULKES, a former executive for CVS Health Corp. and former CEO of Hudson’s Bay Co., was recently appointed as executive chairwoman of Follett Higher Education Group Inc.’s board of directors. Follett Higher Education, based in Westchester, Ill., is a national education service provider and retailer that provides students, parents and faculty learning tools and retail services to support academics for college. Foulkes also ran for R.I. governor in 2022, losing in the Democratic primary in September to Daniel J. McKee.
In your campaign for governor, you were heavily focused on education. What was it about Follett Higher Education that prompted you to become involved in the company in this role? I have been looking at this issue of success for college students for the last couple of years, and looking at the industry and looking at what is happening in the educational tech sector. I think it reminded me in many ways of the pharmacy business. A big problem I was trying to solve when I was at CVS is how do you keep people on the right medication so that they stay out of the hospital. What I discovered in [the education] sector is how do you get kids their books and materials so that they can achieve the educational outcomes they want. That has been the appeal of the sector for me.
What are your goals for Follett as executive chair? The most important thing I’ll be doing is guiding the CEO [Emmanuel Kolady] and the team to make sure that we have the talent in place, the strategy and we’re monitoring execution and performance, and ultimately achieving the goals we set out for ourselves.
Where in Rhode Island do you feel higher education can be improved? I do think there is much more opportunity in Rhode Island to combine the education sector, government and business together to really go after big opportunities. In my [gubernatorial] race, I talked about the blue economy, where for example we have this incredible strength of 400 miles of coast and waterways. Yet, we’re not harnessing all the power of the academic community, business community and government to figure out a roadmap to really win in that sector. I also think about workforce development opportunities. What are the skills for the future that our kids need and are we preparing for them? … I think there is not enough going on at the high school level and college level.
How can workforce initiatives be strengthened? Is it creating partnerships between high schools and colleges? Yes, and also with the business community. What are the skills that are required for entry-level jobs? Are we graduating kids with the skills to succeed? There are so many basic skills such as Microsoft Office or skills that our kids are not graduating with. I hear business leaders saying, “I can’t hire some of these kids; they don’t have the basic math skills.” So, listening to what the business community sees as the opportunity and then asking ourselves how do we evolve these trade programs.
