Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (Deerfield, Ill.) announced that its board and Rosalind Brewer have mutually agreed Brewer step down as the company’s CEO and as a member of the board, effective Aug. 31. The board has appointed Ginger Graham, current Lead Independent Director of WBA, interim CEO, and Brewer has agreed to continue to advise WBA while it searches for a permanent CEO.
Prior to joining WBA, Brewer held posts at Starbucks and Sam’s Club. Though the company remained mum on the reasons behind her departure, several analysts who follow the firm said it may well have been the WBA board’s desire to have someone with more healthcare experience at its helm.
“On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank Roz for her contributions to WBA,” Stefano Pessina, Executive Chairman, said in a news release. “Roz navigated the company through the global pandemic, overseeing the critical rollout of vaccines in Walgreens pharmacies and to high-risk populations across the country. She furthered our consumer facing capabilities while supporting the culture of community and team-member engagement in difficult times. We appreciate her hard work and commitment to the company during this period of unprecedented change.”
Said Brewer: “I am grateful to have had the opportunity to lead Walgreens Boots Alliance and to work alongside such talented and dedicated colleagues. I am proud of what we accomplished together. We’ve improved the lives of our employees, expanded healthcare services for our customers and enhanced our ability to deliver on our purpose of ‘more joyful lives through better health.’ Over the past several years, we have recruited a world class team to WBA, including the first-ever Chief Customer Officer and the first-ever President of U.S. Healthcare, and invested deeply in the improvement of the company’s overall culture.”
The company’s retail pharmacy chain consists of about 13,000 locations across the U.S., Europe and Latin America, operating under Walgreens, Boots, Duane Reade, the No7 Beauty Company, Benavides in Mexico and Ahumada in Chile. In the U.S., the company’s 8700 locations make it the second-largest pharmacy chain, behind CVS and its 9500 stores.