NAJAC Alumni Success: Frank Evans and Helene Lollis

[Uncle Marv]
Hello friends, Uncle Mar here with another episode of my Unfamous Podcast, and I'm back with a couple of interviews that I did at the NAJAC reunion in Bloomington in early August. Today I'm going to have two people on, friends of mine, and I'll tell you that both of them really emphasized the significant impact that not just Junior Achievement, but the National Conference had on their lives and their careers. It opened doors for them in their various career paths, and it left within them a volunteer spirit, something that I think a lot of the staffers that, as we talked about our times there at Indiana University, the selflessness of volunteers and staff members definitely was a highlight to make that conference a success.

The two people that I'm going to be having on today, Frank Evans, and just to give you a little background outside of Junior Achievement, Frank Evans, Frank has a company called Nevins, Inc., which is, in a sense, a Great Clips franchise. So if you still have hair, like I don't, and you go to a salon or you go to a place like Supercuts, you might want to consider a place like Great Clips. Great Clips does haircuts for everyone, and Frank has, I believe, about 15 of these in the area of Colorado, where he lives, in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

And one of the big things about Nevins, Inc., is that they have a strong focus on community involvement and charitable giving. And through his company, they have given, I don't know, I'm going to say close to a million. I know that places will say over 600,000, but it's been a lot that they have raised for patients, family, and team members at the Children's Hospital Colorado.

He and his late wife, Jane, also founded the Clips of Kindness program, which provides free haircuts to individuals experiencing hair loss due to cancer treatments. So Frank's approach to managing his salons, you know, obviously focuses on, you know, creating a nurturing and supportive environment. And it's not just for these charities that they give to, it's also for employees and customers.

Frank believes that people give to people, not causes, which highlights the personal approach that he does to fundraise with his salons. Frank had a 30-year career with Junior Achievements before going on to do Nevins, Inc., and he served as executive assistants to two of the CEOs, one that I knew, Carl Flemke, and also Jim Hayes, and continues to stay involved with Junior Achievement to this day. Helene Lawless, you'll hear that she was a J.A. student for 40 years, which that's actually unheard of, I think, of. And not only did she, you know, compete in and then run the President of the Year competition, she also served on the staff for 10 years in various other roles. But her biggest impact after the conference was becoming the CEO of Pathbuilders. And Pathbuilders is a professional mentoring and leadership development company that focuses on advancing high-potential women in leadership roles.

Now, it should be noted that Helene is actually what you would consider high-potential because she has been recognized in a lot of ways for what she's done. She was named a Woman Worth Watching by Profiles in Diversity Journal. She was honored as a Business to Businesswoman of Excellence, recognized as a PAL Purposeful Woman.

She received the Guiding Star Award from Emory's Executive Women of Goizueta. And she also has stayed in touch and active with Junior Achievement. She's been a board member on several organizations, and she received the Gold Leadership Award by Junior Achievement USA Board of Directors for her service to J.A. Both of these people are considered my friend, and I hope that you enjoy these interviews on their reflections at the J.A. NAJAC reunion. All right, folks, here again with another member at the J.A. reunion, Version 2024, Frank Evans, good friend of J.A. and in life. Frank, how are you? Good, how are you?

It's great to be here this weekend. Yeah, it's been a good week catching up with everybody. For those who might be listening to this who don't know your connection with Junior Achievement, most of us know you as Conference Director of the National Junior Achievement.

What else would you like to share real quick for those that may not know?

[Rob Ray]
Well, I had a 38-year career with Junior Achievement. I started out as an Achiever, like a lot of NAJACers did, and probably was a number of years in the field, but most of my J.A. career, professional career, was at headquarters. Probably most notable, I was like Executive Assistant to Carl Flemke and then later Jim Hayes, two of the CEOs I worked for.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So, of course, one of the things that we do here is reminisce about the old days and stuff. Is there anything that stands out to you, both about those days that you were there or anything since?

[Rob Ray]
Well, I think the most important thing I think about the Conference is a word I used in a group this morning, which is impact. And when you think about this group of individuals who come together and just have this amazing bond and it's an affinity for each other, that's one level of impact. But really at a kind of a bigger, higher level scale, this group of people probably impacted thousands of young people, perhaps inspiring some to be going into different careers and like most notably in business.

I think the fact that this Conference happened for students, high school students, on a college campus, I'm going to assume there's probably more than one, at probably a fair number, who had their eyes open to the possibility of a college education and just an understanding of, oh, that's what college is about.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, I would go even beyond that, not just college, but opening their ideas to not just getting into business, but a lot of these people own their own businesses and have gone on and made super impactful careers and things like that. This reunion, it's interesting because we always talk about the students, but in a sense, a lot of us, yes, we were students, but we seem to be more impacted by the years of staff together. How do you look back over that and see some of these friends in that capacity?

[Rob Ray]
Well, yeah, it's really kind of interesting. The staff friendships that have been made, I think the kind of coming together, the being there sometimes for each other. Earlier this morning, we paid tribute to a guy who's not with us, Fred Kalis, and just particularly touching.

So many people had great reminiscences of their time with Fred and kind of an overarching theme was his sense of selflessness, which probably really is a characterization that you could kind of spread over everybody who's here this weekend. And for the literally thousands of people who were volunteers over the years at NAJAC, most of the staff were volunteers. Most of the staff were then adults or in college years and stuff like that.

So they gave up a week, 10 days of their summer vacation or of their personal business vacation to kind of be here, which that's pretty selfless. And that's a pretty big commitment. It just really shows the depth, I think, of connection that people felt to Junior Achievement and this event.

[Uncle Marv]
So I'm going to use the word that you mentioned, impact, as well as selflessness and mention the fact that you have been retired from JA for a while, but yet you still participate.

[Rob Ray]
Why do you think that is? Yeah, I retired from JA as a staff person in 08, went into business with my wife, I may have been around a couple more years if it hadn't been for that. But when I retired, I think I said that there were three constants in my life at that point, family, God, and JA.

And it had just been part of me since high school. I don't know what I would have been, I probably would have languished in New Jersey at the shore. And I was in law enforcement when I came to work full-time for Junior Achievement, part-time JA, but working as a police officer at the Jersey Shore.

I can't imagine what my life would have been if it hadn't been for Junior Achievement because in the course of my 38-year JA career, I was in two or three different JA areas, and then the bulk of it was at headquarters. And to this day, I still can't think of... It's hard to get my own head around the fact that this kid from Atlantic City had the opportunity to do the things I've done, meet the people I've met, and go the places I have, all because of Junior Achievement.

And it just has provided just a whole world of life for me in terms of possibility. I think an important thing, and I tell some of our employees and my sons and other people in my life, is just to be open. And I think that's one of the things that Junior Achievement helped open eyes for young people to kind of see a world of possibilities.

And sometimes they're staring right in front of you and you don't take advantage of them. Other times, it's just a question of being open and say, well, wonder where that road goes. Maybe let's just check it out a little bit and see.

Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, I want to say a personal thank you to you. My first year as a delegate was 1984. You were there at that time.

And I do remember meeting you. One of the two years I was a delegate. And it is amazing that all these years later, as a delegate to a conference director, never thought that we'd be sitting here having a chat, shaking hands, breaking bread, and sharing stories and stuff.

But I was somebody that showed up at the conference almost by accident. I mean, it was an open position that somebody just happened to say, hey, do you want to go? Not knowing one iota what was in store for me.

And to have what you said, the opportunities opened to me to not just go to school, but to run my business, which I've done now for 28 years. Many of those beginning thoughts were because of Junior Achievement. So I try to thank all of you that went before me and kept the inspiration.

[Rob Ray]
Well, 105 years, that's quite an amazing run. And I did have the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to attend part of the National Staff Conference. And as we will hear this afternoon from Ed from corporate, there's a major, some major new things, really very inspiring kind of things on the horizon.

So it ain't over yet. Hang on. There's great things to come.

And in the years ahead, this is what I came away from the J Staff Conference with.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. Well, yes, we've still got a little bit of reunion to go. Let me let you get back to it.

And I appreciate the time and we'll see you out there. Thank you. Hello, again, friends.

Uncle Marv here. And I'm joined by a familiar name to the show, Helene Lawless, here at the Junior Achievement staff reunion. I don't even know what we're calling it officially, but I think we have a name.

We don't. Helene, how are you?

[Helene Lollis]
I'm good, Marvin. Always good to be with you.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, so here we are. We have done multiples of these reunions. But let me just ask you for somebody who might be listening for the first time.

Give us a quick rundown of your history with J.A. Sure.

[Helene Lollis]
So I was a J.A. kid for four years in Charlotte, North Carolina, and didn't really even know what the NAJAC conference was until suddenly I was in a position when my local area competition had the opportunity to come. And then once you were here once, you wanted to find your way to come back again. So came back after my senior year in high school and was really fortunate to do well in the President of the Year competition.

And that got me into a whole other world of building a relationship with staff, understanding what the dynamics were with staff. And so as it came back on staff for, I was a group counselor for three years and then I was in the competition department for seven years and ultimately got the opportunity to run the President of the Year competition that I had competed in, which is great fun.

[Uncle Marv]
Very nice. I don't think we've ever dealt, you know, into that aspect as much as when I got to know you. I mean, I think we knew with each other when I first showed up as staff, but we didn't really chat until later when you were already doing the stuff and you were involved with competitions and all of that.

But winning President of the Year and then...

[Helene Lollis]
I came in second.

[Uncle Marv]
Oh, you came in second.

[Helene Lollis]
I came in second to Joe Hussman, who was my first co-counselor.

[Uncle Marv]
Really?

[Helene Lollis]
Yes.

[Uncle Marv]
Interesting.

[Helene Lollis]
It was interesting. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Wow. I don't know why I always pictured you as winning stuff.

[Helene Lollis]
Second place President of the Year, second place Outstanding Young Businesswoman. Back in the day, they used to split it into there was an Outstanding Young Businesswoman and an Outstanding Young Businessman. We had two competitions.

Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So before we dive more into your Junior Achievement stuff, real quick, I know that you've, you know, been where you are for 22 years as the CEO of Path Builders. And I've briefly asked you about your path from JA to get to Path Builders.

Is there anything that you can point to that specifically is a direct route from Junior Achievement to where you are now?

[Helene Lollis]
Absolutely. So I worked in large corporate... I grew up in the oil and chemical industry, really.

And when I left, I was with Amoco. Amoco was acquired by BP, and I stayed around for a few years after BP bought us. But when I decided to step outside from BP, I didn't really have a plan, but this business kind of showed up in front of me, and I decided to buy the business.

And I remember brokering to my parents, like breaching the subject with my parents about the fact that I was about to buy a small business. And my entire family just kind of like shrugged as if, well, of course. For them, because of my JA experience, they just always envisioned me a business owner, where I felt I was taking this monumental step.

Literally, my entire family just shrugged and said, well, of course. Yeah, we always knew.

[Uncle Marv]
No brainer. Now, looking back, I guess the question begs now, you have been an avid supporter of Junior Achievement. You've been on the board.

You've been a... I don't want to say cheerleader. It's more of cheerleading that you've done.

Have you felt that it is so ingrained as a life that had you ever thought of not being in JA afterwards?

[Helene Lollis]
It's interesting. I've had so many different individual lives with JA. I mean, my student experience, I look at differently than my AJAX staff experience, differently than...

I mean, I spent a fair amount of time advising JA company programs in the Chicago area. And then my time in Georgia, I certainly went through a period of time where I didn't have much engagement. And when they brought the company program back, so to speak, in Georgia, that's when I became an advisor again.

And then that got me on this path that ultimately ended up in being a board member, chairing the board, and still on the executive board in Georgia. And when I think across all of that, it's a little bit different than would I ever leave. And a little bit more about each of those, while progressive, are kind of different experiences that I engaged with at different times.

[Uncle Marv]
Does that make sense? It does. And I was trying to find a nice way to ask that question because everybody's got a different path, but we always end up back in JA in some form or fashion.

And it's interesting to always hear the different reasons and the different paths. So yours is, I don't want to say unique in a sense, but very few of us staff members have been on the board. Some of us worked for JA in their local offices.

You did not.

[Helene Lollis]
Right, right. Never had that opportunity. It's funny.

It was actually... Doing nonprofit board work has been very important to me. Literally, it was an element of the strategy of building my business that I recognized I needed to have great relationships with corporate leaders to be able to know how to help them solve their problems.

And after being a very involved volunteer, I remember asking our local area CEO, what is it that you're looking for in board members? Somewhat contemplating that I might be putting myself on a trajectory to build the cred, if you will, to be considered. And I will never forget Donna Buchanan, the amazing Donna Buchanan said, I think you should be on the board right now.

And it was a leap for me to enter that realm of leadership. And it was an incredible learning experience for me. And then just got very deeply involved.

And that became this committee, and the next committee, and the next thing I know, I'm on the executive committee. And I was actually quite surprised when the board chair and the CEO approached me to consider the chair position. I'll go with the word shocked, actually.

But again, it felt like the right progression. And I will say, I think I was the right chair at the right time. And now we're in a different time.

And we need something different in our leadership.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. So I was going to ask you, I'll come back to it.

[Helene Lollis]
Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
But what I want to ask really now is, it seems as though people look at you as one of the staples.

[Helene Lollis]
I don't know what that means.

[Uncle Marv]
Like, if somebody thinks of Junior Achievement or NAJAC, your name is at the top.

[Helene Lollis]
I do not think that that is the case.

[Uncle Marv]
So I was going to ask, because again, you've been involved with all of these reunions, you're involved with a lot of the JA and the NAJAC stuff. Do you ever get people that reach out to you for advice?

[Helene Lollis]
Do you know, I'm perhaps most proud of the students that I'm still connected to. And I mean, I have some fantastic stories. One young woman in one of the companies I advised in Chicago actually won the Johnson and Wales scholarship from what was then, it was one of the Midland Michigan conferences, actually.

[Uncle Marv]
The ROJAC ones or whatever?

[Helene Lollis]
No, it was part of when JA moved to Midland, one of the things there was a scholarship awarded to Johnson and Wales and she received that. And we've stayed in touch. She's a senior vice president at LexisNexis.

But perhaps my absolute favorite story is a young man in Atlanta named Jamar, who I ran into someplace and he was excited to tell me about this gentleman in construction who he was having a conversation with. And I said, oh, that's so great that you know Scott. How do you know Scott?

And Jamar looked at me and said, Helene, you introduced me to Scott. Of course, I had no clue. But in high school, he had said he was interested in construction.

And the incredible pride that I have that perhaps maybe there's some element of me introducing him to this gentleman who was a senior executive in the construction industry. Jamar went to Georgia Tech, got his degree in construction engineering, and that is the field that he pursued. And literally, I remember asking him, that's so great you know Scott.

How do you know Scott? And he just said, Helene.

[Uncle Marv]
Very nice. So of course, that just goes along with what we've been doing here in terms of sharing stories, sharing memories and stuff. So let me now shift to this weekend.

And of course, the easy question is, why do you keep coming back? But let me take that a step further and ask you, what is it that stands out to you each of these times that you come back and visit?

[Helene Lollis]
Yeah, so they're the same answer, really. It's the people. It's the quality of the people.

There have been a couple of times today over the course of this weekend actually where I've felt compelled to grab a pen and write something down. And one moment was when Frank began by saying that this body of individuals represents the best of what business can be. I found that really compelling.

But equally compelling was Larry Rosolowski sharing that there's something about that the NAJAC conference was the right thing at the right time and how fortunate we all were to be there at the time when it was the right thing to do. And perhaps it's different what would be appropriate today. And I find myself so inspired by those ideas, but yet it's the people.

It's the quality of the people. It's the depth of relationship. It is the capacity that this group has to not notice that five years has passed.

It just seems the conversation was yesterday and now it's today.

[Uncle Marv]
How you just ended is probably the hardest thing it has been for me to explain to current friends and families that how is it that people that you saw for one week a year mean more to you than people that you grew up with, went to high school with, went to college with?

[Helene Lollis]
Yeah. And I think it's the intensity of the experience that we had.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah.

[Helene Lollis]
And the no holds barred, whatever it took, you assembled every cell in your brain and every ounce of energy that you had to make this happen with these people. But it's completely impossible to explain to other people because if you were to add up the total number of days we have spent together, it's really not that much.

[Uncle Marv]
No, not at all. I mean, in fact, I think I did it one time and I think the days were less than one year.

[Helene Lollis]
Sure. It has to be. It absolutely has to be less than one year.

[Uncle Marv]
But you're right. That crucible of that week.

[Helene Lollis]
Great word.

[Uncle Marv]
Literally, you had to show up and you had to make things happen.

[Helene Lollis]
Yes. Yeah. And then in retrospect, you almost wonder how did Yes.

Yes.

[Uncle Marv]
How did we? How do we? I mean, the numbers, what did they talk about the fact that at the peak, 3000 students, 300 to 350 staff, a ratio of 10 to one.

Yes. Would be unheard of today.

[Helene Lollis]
And the complexity. Yes. It's not 300 people working with the 3000.

Think about how many of those 300 never even really touched a kid.

[Uncle Marv]
Right.

[Helene Lollis]
Because it was the security in the background and the travel elements and all of the underpinnings that you think about the incredible vastness of the functional areas, if you will, that we covered. I remember one year John Meister in competitions actually had us begin the week as he was framing, getting our plan in place. And he asked everybody to say what their salary would have been if they were home for a week and to build it out to just get a sense of the magic of this many people stepping away from their jobs for a week.

And if you were to invest that, right, could you even assemble this group of people together?

[Uncle Marv]
Wow. Yeah. Could you pay them enough?

[Helene Lollis]
Well, okay. Clearly, clearly, none of us were in for the honor to travel here.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah.

[Helene Lollis]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Wow. I'm going to have to sit back and maybe have some more thoughts on that and get some, some comments from people. Well, let me ask this and let's see if this will be our closing thoughts.

What is your biggest takeaway?

[Helene Lollis]
So again, the, the, the opportunity to continually develop and build respect with people is the, the, the thing that always would keep me coming back. But I'll, I'll answer by commenting on what felt different this time. And I think we're all starting to feel our age.

And as we, as we recognize this conference keeps getting further and further in the rear view mirror we always take time when we're here together to reflect on those who we've lost. And like yourself being on the younger end of the alumni crew those have typically been more iconic names that we talk about that, that I remember. I remember that person being on stage or I remember the role that they had, but they never knew who I was.

I never had a relationship with them. And not that there isn't absolutely respect and admiration for those individuals, but I just didn't have a personal relationship with them. And one of the things we always do is honor and recognize those who have, have passed.

And now it's starting to be people that I worked very closely with and knew and loved. And, and just the realization that, gosh, it makes it that much more important to make sure we stay connected maybe more than just once every five years.

[Uncle Marv]
I concur with that 100% because as I was listening to some of the names and stuff, you're right. It wasn't that name that, you know, was afar. You know, it wasn't, you know, like Carl Flemke, I shook his hand once, you know, but we weren't side by side every day.

And the people that I'm seeing here now are those people. Right.

[Helene Lollis]
Right. Yeah. And you start to that, you have that gasp when you hear the name and think, wow, just a year or five years ago.

Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, Helene, I want to end on this note that I've been doing with some of the people and just saying thank you for all that you've not only done to stay in touch and in, you know, concert with Junior Achievement, but the fact that you have continued to be a part of this, you know, pseudo alumni club that we've built, that we do stay in touch and we do share and reminisce and stuff. And it's nice to, you know, to be able to see the familiar faces, to share the stories and sometimes learn new stories that get uncovered as we, you know, bring new people in to hear how they remember, you know, Junior Achievement and specifically NAJAC.

[Helene Lollis]
Well, thank you for grabbing these moments of history, because to bring us full circle from a salient perspective, there are voices that you may be capturing in this reunion that won't be with us next time. So it's that much more important.

[Uncle Marv]
We shall miss them if that is the case, but then we will enjoy them when we see them next. So Helene, thank you.

[Helene Lollis]
Thanks, Marvin. That was fun.