Colorado entrepreneur and consultant J.B. Holston will take over as the state higher education department’s new executive director starting in January, an announcement from Gov. Jared Polis’ office said Monday.
Holston, who joined the Colorado Department of Higher Education on Monday, will shadow exiting Executive Director Angie Paccione until Jan. 9, when he will assume leadership of a department that’s expected to undergo plenty of change in the next year.
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Last week, Polis said he wants to end Colorado’s higher education department in its current form and create a new agency that would merge the functions of the state’s higher education, labor and other departments in a bid to strengthen training for jobs.
In an interview Monday, Holston said he was a senior adviser on a report that recommended the creation of the Colorado Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.
The higher education department supports students and creates statewide policy. It doesn’t have a governing role over the state’s colleges and universities. The department collects data and oversees programs that support the workforce, decrease student debt, and help more Coloradans get a college certificate, credential or degree.
Paccione announced her resignation at the beginning of December to enter the private sector for personal reasons.
Polis’ second term will end in 2026, and the next governor will choose to keep or hire new department leaders. Holston said he will focus on continuing the work the higher education department performs and its transition, and not on who the new governor will keep in his cabinet.
“We really want to move this along so that it’s extremely easy for the next governor to accept and accelerate,” he said. “The next governor will decide whom he or she wants doing what, and we’re trying to get this work done really quite independent of that particular aspect.”
Polis has said lawmakers will need to file legislation to create the new department and the process will finish with the next governor in 2027.
Holston received a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Stanford University. His resume includes leadership roles at media companies NBCUniversal and Ziff Davis, Inc. He was the dean of the University of Denver’s School of Engineering and Computer Science for five years.
He has spent the past several years working as a consultant advising civic organizations, higher education institutions, governments, and industries on strategy and workforce and economic development efforts.
Holston has also helped co-found numerous civic initiatives, including the Colorado Media Project, which is a Chalkbeat funder.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education.
