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Emerson Foster
Vice President of Human Resources, North America and Global Strategic Accounts — Sodexo, Corporate Services Division
Emerson is a Human Resources executive with extensive experience in strategic talent acquisition, employee relations, diversity recruiting and management, leadership development, succession planning, change management, labor relations and performance management.
Emerson is currently the Vice President of Human Resources – North America and Global Strategic Accounts for the Corporate Services Division of Sodexo. With revenues of over 20 billion dollars, Sodexo is a global leader in the Foodservice and Facilities Management arenas. Emerson and his team support over 3,000 locations and over 25,000 employees across the US, Canada and the Global Strategic business. Prior to joining Sodexo, Emerson served as the Managing Director of Foster & Francisco LLC. Prior to Co-Founding Foster & Francisco, he served as The Mentor Network’s Vice President of Field Human Resources. The Mentor Network is a 1 billion dollar plus, for-profit Human Services organization serving children and adults with disabilities and complex challenges. At the Network Emerson was responsible for providing full HR delivery to 3 of the 4 operating groups across 24 states.
Prior to joining the Network, Emerson worked for Stop & Shop Supermarket Company for 13 years. He began his career at Stop & Shop working in the insurance group and subsequently held the positions of Field HR Manager, Director of Corporate HR, Director of Talent Acquisition and Sr. Director of Community Relations.
Emerson has also worked extensively within the non-profit community. He is a founding member of Bottom Line (bottomline.org), a non-profit college counseling service aimed at increasing the percentage of urban students attaining college degrees. He Chaired the Board of Directors of Bottom Line for the first 7 years of its existence and was a sitting Board member for 20 years. He remains active with the organization. Emerson is also the founder of Men and Women of Action, The Boston Men’s Dinner Group and the Alumni of Color forum at the University of Rhode Island. Emerson currently sits on the boards of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, BAM – Becoming A Man and the New England Center for Arts & Technology and serves on the Advisory Committee for the social enterprise, not-for-profit More Than Words. Emerson lives in Canton with his wife Anna, kids Alana and Devin.