Building Careers, Building Communities

Jodi Fournier, former president and CEO of recruitment and consulting firm Taylor Grey, Inc., enjoys “making the right match: assisting the client in finding the right candidate, helping the candidate find the right environment, then putting all the intangibles into place and making it happen.”

Her enthusiasm for her work drove the success of her former company, ranked in  Inc. magazine’s “Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Companies” of 2008. Inc. cited Taylor Grey’s impressive 130.8 percent revenue growth during a three-year period as well as its investment in technology as some of the reasons for its rapid expansion.

(On June 1, Fournier sold Taylor Grey and has just started a new position as chief administrative officer of Bond Street Group in New York City).

Mentioning noteworthy items about Taylor Grey, Inc. referred to Fournier’s humanitarian trip to Africa—a journey Fournier describes as “the most rewarding experience of my life.”

As part of the Ludlowe Corps—students, parents, and teachers at Fairfield, Conn.’s Ludlowe Middle School—Fournier and her daughter, Kyle, visited Senegal last year. “The group’s purpose is for school children to help school children through hands-on projects,” Fournier explained. “The belief is that through service-minded education, we better understand the interconnectedness of our world and make it a better place.”

By helping build a school, establishing a diabetes screening clinic, and purchasing more than 1,000 anti-malaria mosquito nets, the Ludlowe Corps can say “mission accomplished.”

Fournier and Kyle cannot return as part of the Ludlowe Corps—students can only go once—but each wants to visit Senegal again. “We’ll go back one day. Although Kyle will enter high school in September, she has thought about returning upon graduation and working there before she begins her college experience.”

Fournier, who studied organizational behavior, is an active member of the URI Women’s Council. In retirement, she hopes she can return to South County, possibly become a URI student again, and volunteer with URI’s Career Services. Regardless of where Fournier finds herself—Africa, Kingston or another destination—she will leave a lasting impact, for her unceasing passion for helping others fuels her professional and personal growth.

—Maria V. Caliri ’86, M.B.A. ’92