A fairly quick change has been made over at Walgreens.
On Aug. 31, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.’s CEO Rosalind Brewer stepped down from the company, according to Bloomberg. The outlet also notes that she was the only Black woman serving as a CEO in the S&P 500.
Prior to her exit, the former Starbucks Corp. COO — who stepped into Walgreens leadership in 2021 — was part of Walgreens’ plan to expand more into health care.
The outlet details that several of the moves in that direction included the addition of primary-care centers to hundreds of U.S. stores along with the acquisition of Summit Health-City MD, an urgent-care provider. Brewer had been appointed thanks to chairman and former CEO Stefano Pessina who had the vision to stand as a competitor against CVS Health Corp. Pessina had shared that Brewer’s “digital expertise and leadership skills would make up for her lack of experience in health care.”
Although the goal was to boost patient care, things took a dive when the company cut its full-year profit forecast and its stock value went down by half in the last quarter. It dropped 2.1% at the New York market open following the announcement, per Bloomberg.
“Brewer’s downfall may have been failing to manage expectations of how some of the moves, like the investment in Village MD, would likely impact company profits in the short term,” the outlet wrote.
Following Brewer’s departure, board member Ginger Graham is filling the role as interim CEO. To add further uncertainty for the company, Brewer isn’t the only leader to exit in recent months. Former chief financial officer James Kehoe left his C-suite position and went into the tech sector in August.
“We do see the interim CEO and CFO positions as potentially creating some investor unease,” Evercore ISI analyst Elizabeth Anderson shared with the outlet.
She added, “…it makes sense to retrench and search for a new leadership team with more extensive backgrounds in health-care services.”
