Follett President & CEO Ray Griffith to Retire; Board Appoints Sodexo’s Patrick Connolly to Succeed Griffith

From Follett:

Follett Corporation today announced that President and CEO Ray A. Griffith will retire from the company at the end of the current fiscal year in March 2018.  The Board has appointed former Sodexo executive Patrick E. Connolly to succeed Griffith as President and CEO, effective January 2, 2018.
Griffith was named to lead Follett in 2015 following a long and successful career at Ace Hardware, retiring as President and CEO in 2013.  He is credited for leading Follett through a series of acquisitions, among them more than 200 Nebraska Book Company retail campus stores in 2015 and in 2016, Baker & Taylor, the leading text and media distributor to public libraries and retailers worldwide.
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Connolly steps into the role with nearly three decades of business leadership experience at Sodexo.  He most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Universities Worldwide, Sodexo’s global business unit that supports the university and K-12 market in 30 countries, including 850 universities and 750 school districts in the United States.
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After joining Sodexo in 1989 as a Regional Sales Director to school districts in the Midwest, Connolly took on progressively responsible leadership positions in Sodexo’s K-12, senior services and health care businesses.  In 2007, he was named Chief Operating Officer, North America & President of Health Care North America.
Connolly holds a Bachelor of Business from Western Illinois University and a Master of Management from the J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Read the Complete Announcement

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