Peter Fasolo, the former chief human resources officer for Johnson & Johnson and HR Executive‘s 2022 HR Executive of the Year, was named this week as the new director of the Human Resources Policy Institute at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
“I really feel honored and a deep sense of gratitude to Fred and to others at Questrom and Boston University for giving me the opportunity to be the next director,” Fasolo said in an interview with HR Executive. “I love the [institute’s] mission of practice, research and professional development.”
Founded in 1981 by Fred Foulkes, HRPI is the longest-serving institute at BU, working to support HR executives and innovate modern HR policy and practice by bridging the gap between the industry and academics. In addition to his role with the institute, Fasolo—who has a Ph.D. in organizational behavior—is now a professor of the practice, management and organizations at Questrom. He expects to begin teaching in 2026.
Fasolo led human capital strategy at the global 135,000-employee J&J for 14 years before retiring last fall. Among many areas, Fasolo focused on talent and learning, diversity in succession planning and providing strong employee benefits. During his tenure, the company was regularly recognized as a top place to work and as one of the world’s Most Admired Companies by Fortune.
As a practitioner, he was a member of HRPI for many years, finding great value in it as a unique place to learn from colleagues and the research being conducted for the institute. When upskilling became critical several years ago, for example, HRPI quickly prioritized the topic for one of its biannual summits. Fasolo recalls leaving that meeting knowing much more about how other HR leaders were working to upskill their workforces and potential partners in the space.
“That was hugely beneficial to me as the CHRO of Johnson & Johnson,” he says, “to learn and also to share [what we were doing].”
Moving forward, Fasolo believes HRPI’s role will become even more important for global HR executives, and he expects there is room for the institute to increase its membership ranks as a result. “I just happen to believe the next three to five years will be one of the most transformative times for the human capital agendas of most major corporations and firms,” he says.
Significant topics include industrial transformation within businesses; major C-suite transitions at global organizations; employees’ growing reliance on leaders for guidance and predictability; and the rapid disruption brought by AI and machine learning.
“When I look out over the horizon, I think that the expectations of employees are rapidly shifting,” he says. “They want greater transparency. They want to understand what’s happening with topics such as pay equity and pay transparency. They want greater resources for health and wellness. They want a better understanding of the ‘why’ of work.”
The complementary relationships between HRPI’s member practitioners and its academic faculty and researchers, Fasolo believes, are key to ultimately helping employees and organizations perform better.
HRPI’s ‘secret sauce’
“I think you need the practitioners’ view, but you also need the faculty members’ and the research perspectives on how to best study what works,” he says. “How do you do very well thought-out scientific inquiry into the workforce, so you know what’s actually working and why?”
Foulkes agrees. “To the extent that we’re doing things that members care about,” he says, “that’s our secret sauce.”
Now professor emeritus at BU, Foulkes believes Fasolo is well-positioned to lead the organization, calling him “the perfect candidate” based on his strong academic background, vast HR knowledge, legacy at a well-known global company and leadership throughout the industry.
Since Foulkes’ retirement last year, the institute had been led by Charlie Tharp and Connie Noonan Hadley, who did a “terrific job” as co-directors, Fasolo said, thanking all three for their support during the transition. Tharp and Hadley will join HRPI’s Steering Committee; Hadley will serve as associate director of HRPI.
Fasolo is diving in quickly, with the agenda for the institute’s spring meeting taking place May 1-2 at Boston University focused on “Leading Human Resources Through Turbulent Times—Rising Expectations of Employees and the C-Suite.” He views the future as built directly atop the decades of contributions already made by HRPI.
“It’s where practice and research come together in a unique way that the profession advances in a very sound way—beyond anecdotes, beyond opinions,” he says. “It is really founded and based on scientific inquiry … researchers and an academic institution combined with practitioners who are out there getting it done, day in and day out.”
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