Pharm Team

Rite Aid Corp. (Camp Hill, Pa.) has the announced the promotion of president and coo Mary Sammons to president and ceo, effective June 25, 2003.

Current chairman and ceo Bob Miller will retain the position of chairman until his term on the Rite Aid board of directors ends at the company's annual meeting in June, 2005. At that time, the decision will be made regarding his standing for re-election to the board.

“I intend to be an active chairman, assisting with strategic planning and working with Mary and the senior management team,” Miller said.

Miller and Sammons both came to Rite Aid in December 1999 as part of a new executive team hired to develop and execute a turnaround plan for the nation's third-largest drugstore chain.

Sammons had previously been president and ceo of Fred Meyer Stores (Portland, Ore.), a 137-store food, drug and general merchandise retailer in the Pacific Northwest and a unit of Fred Meyer Inc., which was bought by The Kroger Co. (Cincinnati) in 1999. She is vice chairman of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the industry's trade association, and will assume the role of chairman later this month.

Miller had been ceo of Fred Meyer Inc. until its 1999 acquisition by Kroger, at which time he became vice chairman and coo of Kroger before moving to Rite Aid.

Rite Aid operates about 3400 drugstores in 28 states and Washington, D.C.