Healthcare executive Richard J. Henley joins Colin Powell School Board

The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at The City College of New York is pleased to announce the appointment of healthcare executive and CCNY alumnus Richard J. Henley to its Board of Visitors. He joins twenty-nine other distinguished Board Members.

Henley is President and CEO at Healthcare Strategic Solutions, LLC, an advisory firm focused on optimizing enterprise value for health systems, private equity firms, portfolio companies, and other business entities through strategy, leadership and business development. He has spent more than thirty years in senior leadership positions in a broad range of healthcare settings including an academic medical center, a multi-hospital system and community hospitals.  

“Richard Henley’s experience at CCNY is similar to my own. CCNY provided him with a first-class public education that set him on a path to professional and personal success. It did the same for me twenty years before him, and we still do it today,” said General Colin L. Powell, a 1958 CCNY alumnus and Chair of the Colin Powell School Board of the Visitors. “I am glad he is joining us in supporting the next generation of CCNY students at the Colin Powell School.” 

“The Colin Powell School’s purpose is to prepare the nation’s most diverse student body to become tomorrow’s global leaders. Central to that mission is a commitment to mentorship and career and professional development for our students,” said Andrew Rich, the Colin Powell School’s Dean. “Richard Henley brings a deep experience and commitment to mentorship, and a belief in our work. We welcome his support and leadership, alongside his commitment to our students, as a member of the Board of Visitors.”

Richard J. Henley, an émigré from Poland whose family fled from communism and anti-Semitism when he was a toddler, received his primary education in New York City public schools. After graduating from Franklin School, he simultaneously earned a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts, Summa Cum Laude, from City College in 1978. He was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.  

During his studies, he became interested in healthcare and economics. He credits the College’s placement office for helping him to land his first job after graduation, at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he held a series of increasingly responsible positions. Over the course of the next few decades, he worked for a number of hospitals and health systems in senior executive positions, culminating in his founding of Healthcare Strategic Solutions in 2008.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Henley has made numerous national presentations on healthcare and has held adjunct faculty appointments at CUNY and NYU.

About the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership 
Established in April 2013, the Colin Powell School is home to the social science departments at CCNY as well as the core leadership development and public service programs of the College. With almost 4,000 students, and graduating the most CCNY students annually, the Colin Powell School mission is to transform the nation’s most diverse student body into tomorrow’s global leaders. Half of our students are immigrants; most come from lower income backgrounds. More than seventy percent are first-generation college students, and eighty percent are people of color. The Colin Powell School and City College remain among the most effective engines of economic and social mobility in the United States. The School is led by a faculty dedicated to the highest standards of research and to the university’s democratic and public obligations. Read more about the Colin Powell School.

About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.