By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Enterprise Author
Walgreens stated Tuesday it has tapped Starbucks govt Roz Brewer as its new CEO, which can make her the one Black lady main a Fortune 500 firm.
Starbucks introduced Tuesday that Brewer was departing after somewhat greater than three years as its chief working officer. Walgreens later confirmed that Brewer will take over as its CEO on March 15.
Brewer succeeds Stefano Pessina, who served as CEO for six years following the merger between Walgreens and Alliance Boots in 2014. Pessina will transition to govt chairman of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.’s board.
Pessina praised Brewer’s experience in operations, buyer relations, expertise improvement and digital innovation.
“She is a distinguished and skilled govt who has led organizations globally via durations of adjusting client habits by making use of innovation that elevates buyer experiences,” Pessina stated.
At Starbucks, Brewer revamped shops, taking out litter and chopping down on administrative work so workers may give attention to clients and velocity up service. She helped develop Starbucks’ rewards program and pushed for extra variety in its ranks.
Previous to becoming a member of Starbucks, Brewer served as president and CEO of Sam’s Membership, the members-only warehouse channel of Walmart Inc. She additionally grew membership and improved merchandise there.
Earlier than that, Brewer was with Kimberly-Clark Corp. for 22 years. Brewer __ who has a bachelor’s diploma in chemistry from Spelman School __ began at Kimberly-Clark as a scientist and finally served as president of the World Nonwovens Sector.
Brewer stated she’s excited to innovate within the well being care trade at Walgreens, particularly as the corporate helps fight the coronavirus pandemic.
“I step into this position with nice optimism for the way forward for WBA,” Brewer stated in an announcement.
Based mostly in Deerfield, Illinois, Walgreens says it employs greater than 450,000 folks and has greater than 21,000 shops globally.
Ursula Burns was the primary Black lady to run a Fortune 500 firm when she grew to become CEO of Xerox in 2009. However she misplaced that position in 2016 when Xerox cut up into two firms.
There are solely a handful of different Black CEOs within the Fortune 500, together with Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison.
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