Helena Foulkes

Foulkes is a lifelong Rhode Islander. Her grandfather Thomas J. Dodd and her uncle Christopher Dodd both served as U.S. senators from Connecticut.⁠[1][2]

She received a bachelor’s degree in economics from HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry in 1986 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1992. Before joining CVS in 1992 she worked at Goldman SachsGoldman SachsGoldman Sachs is an American financial services group headquartered in New York whose businesses include investment banking, securities trading, asset management, and wealth management. It traces its origins to the commercial paper business Marcus Goldman founded in 1869; it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1999 under the ticker GS and became a bank holding company in 2008. David Solomon serves as chairman and chief executive officer.Open the full entry and Tiffany & Co.⁠[3][4]

Foulkes spent more than 25 years at CVS. From January 2014 she was president of CVS Pharmacy and executive vice president of CVS Health, responsible for retail strategy and operations covering nearly 9,700 stores, 20 distribution centers and the e-commerce sites. CVS Pharmacy was then an $80 billion business with more than 200,000 employees.⁠[4][2]

She helped lead CVS’s decision to stop selling tobacco products and helped launch CVS’s digital business. Tobacco products then brought in about $2 billion in revenue; Foulkes has said she believes “protecting people’s health is more important than profits.”⁠[4][1]

As of early 2018 she also served on the board of The Home DepotThe Home DepotThe Home Depot, Inc. is an American home improvement retailer, the world’s largest by net sales for fiscal 2025, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.Open the full entry and on the Harvard University Board of Overseers.⁠[4]

On February 5, 2018, the Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) announced Foulkes’s appointment as chief executive officer, effective February 19. She was given responsibility for global strategy and operations across all of the company’s banners, with more than 66,000 associates and over 480 stores, and joined HBC’s board; Richard Baker, who had been interim chief executive, remained executive chairman.⁠[4]

In the announcement she said, “I am honored to join this iconic company.” She held the post until 2020.⁠[4][3]

In her first run for public office, Foulkes finished second in the September 13, 2022, Democratic primary for governor of Rhode Island with 29.9 percent, behind incumbent Governor Dan McKee (32.8 percent); the other candidates included Nellie Gorbea (26.2 percent) and Matt Brown (7.9 percent).⁠[3][2]

After the 2022 race Foulkes worked with the mayor of Central Falls to improve the city’s public schools and served as a board member and volunteer with Rhode Island nonprofits working on homelessness and domestic violence. From 2023 she was executive chair of Follett Higher Education, a post she still held in 2026.⁠[1][3]

In the September 9, 2026, Democratic primary for governor Foulkes defeated Governor Dan McKee, who was seeking re-election, by 62.3 percent to 37.7 percent to win the nomination.⁠[3][5]

In the November 3 gubernatorial election Foulkes defeated independent Ken Block and Republican Aaron GuckianAaron GuckianAaron Guckian is a Rhode Island Republican politician who served as a special assistant to Governor Donald Carcieri and has worked in banking and the nonprofit sector. He was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Rhode Island in 2022 and for governor in 2026.Open the full entry; unofficial results showed Foulkes with about 57 percent, Block with about 28 percent and Guckian with about 13 percent. The Associated Press projected Foulkes as the winner. She is set to become Rhode Island’s second woman governor, after Gina RaimondoGina RaimondoGina Raimondo (Gina M. Raimondo) is an American Democratic politician who was elected General Treasurer of Rhode Island in 2010 and later served as the 75th Governor of Rhode Island (2015–2021, the state’s first woman governor) and the 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce (2021–2025). As commerce secretary she oversaw the disbursement of chip subsidies under the CHIPS and Science Act and export controls on advanced chips to China, and stood up the U.S. AI Safety Institute; after leaving office she co-founded RAISE US, a nonprofit addressing AI’s impact on jobs, with former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb in 2026 and serves as its chief executive officer.Open the full entry.⁠[2][6]

In her victory speech that night at the Graduate Hotel in Providence she said, “Tonight, Rhode Island didn’t just pick a governor.” She has said she plans to create 20,000 housing units over two terms, to focus the first 100 days after her inauguration in January 2027 on housing, health care and other priorities, and to cut the ribbon on a new Washington Bridge in 2028.⁠[2]

Foulkes has said her priorities include pushing back against the Donald Trump administration’s actions affecting Rhode Island and cuts to funding that families rely on, creating more good-paying jobs, making the state more affordable, addressing affordable housing and the Washington Bridge, getting better results from state spending, and keeping companies and talent in Rhode Island.⁠[1]

Helena Foulkes for Governor (campaign): Official website: https://helenafoulkes.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

X: Public account: https://x.com/HelenaBFoulkes (opens in a new window).⁠[1]