Walgreens WBA 2.86%
Boots Alliance Inc. will appoint Roz Brewer, chief operating officer of Starbucks Corp., as its next CEO, according to people who know the subject, and make her the only black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company today.
Ms Brewer will replace Stefano Pessina, who said in July she would step down as CEO once the pharmacy finds a new leader. Pessina, one of Walgreens’ largest individual investors, said he planned to stay on the company’s board and serve as chief executive.
Shares of Walgreens, which have a market value of about $ 43 billion, rose 7.4% a few hours after The Wall Street Journal reported the move.
Starbucks said Tuesday that Ms. Brewer would leave in late February for a new role at another public company. Prior to joining the coffee chain, Ms. Brewer was CEO of Walmart Inc
Sam’s Club division for five years.
Mrs. Brewer, 58, has been working as chief operating officer and member of Starbucks ’board of directors since 2017. He helped shift Starbucks to pending operations during the pandemic and has worked to diversify the company’s leadership. Last fall, Starbucks said it would link executive compensation to increased representation of minorities in its workforce, and that it required antibiotic training for business leaders.
In 2019, Ms. Brewer joined the board of Amazon.com Inc.
amid pressure on the company to add more diversity to its board of directors. Amazon has been expanding more and more into the healthcare space, becoming a competitor to companies like Walgreens and CVS. In 2018, Amazon bought the online pharmacy PillPack for $ 1 billion.
Stefano Pessina visited a Walgreens in Deerfield, Illinois, in March 2019.
Photo:
LUCY HEWETT FOR THE WALL STREET DIARY
Walgreens, the largest pharmacy chain in the United States, has been struggling to turn around, a complicated effort due to the coronavirus pandemic. Pessina, an Italian billionaire, took over five years ago after the merger of Walgreens and the European pharmacy chain Alliance Boots.
On rival CVS Health Corp.
has become a healthcare giant through the acquisition of pharmacy benefit manager Caremark in 2006 and insurer Aetna Inc. Inc.
and pharmacy rival Rite Aid Corp.
Walgreens recently announced plans to sell much of its wholesale pharmacy business in Europe, reducing its focus on its namesake chain in the United States and the Boots pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom.
Reducing store traffic amid the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating Walgreens ’retail struggles and the company’s efforts to become a healthcare provider have yet to be consolidated. The company is also expected to play a central role in administering the Covid-19 vaccine to the American public. Together with CVS, Walgreens worked with the federal government to administer doses to the nation’s long-term care facilities.
In its last quarter, pharmacy chain profits fell 25%, even as overall revenue rose and the company worked to reduce costs. Retail pharmacy sales rose 1.6% in the U.S., well below expectations, and executives said prescription volumes were lower than expected.
Last year, Walgreens ranked among the worst-performing members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 29.4%. The index gained 7.3% in 2020.
The first African American and first woman to run a Walmart business unit, Ms. Brewer joined the retail giant in 2006 after two decades at Kimberly-Clark Corp.
, where he started as a chemist. She graduated from Spelman College, where she chairs the board.
There are four black CEOs in the Fortune 500: Kenneth Frazier, of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.,
Marvin Ellison, of the Lowe’s Cos hardware chain.,
Roger Ferguson Jr. of TIAA, a financial services company, and René Jones, who runs M&T Bank Corp.
in New York.
The number of women running Fortune 500 companies hit an all-time high last year at 37 and they have since been nominated for more.
Write to Dana Mattioli to [email protected] and Cara Lombardo to [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8