As the next chief executive of Walgreens, Rosalind “Roz” Brewer is set to become the only Black woman leading a Fortune 500 company.
What We Know:
- According to CNBC, Walgreens announced on Tuesday that the drugstore chain’s CEO Stefano Pessina would be replaced by Rosalind Brewer. Brewer has just parted with her position at Starbucks as Chief Operating Officer to take over this new position on March 15th, 2021.
- Rosalind Brewer is a Detroit native and attended Spelman College for an undergraduate degree in chemistry. She went on to continue her education at the Director’s College at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Stanford Law School. Brewer also took an advanced management program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
- The Wall Street Journal reports the 58-year-old’s list of achievements to include being the COO of Starbucks in 2017, spending five years as the CEO of Walmart Inc.’s Sam’s Club, working as a scientist for 22 years at Kimberly-Clark Corp., and serving on the board of directors for companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Lockheed Martin.
- Former CEO and Italian billionaire, Stefano Pessina, commented on Brewer’s new position saying, “We needed someone with an experience in retail and an experience in pharmacy and, more importantly, experience in digital. She’s very thoughtful and very personable, she’s reasonable and she has all the qualities that are important for a chief executive.”
Recently, the drugstore company has been hit hard by the global pandemic and aims to beat out competitors like CVS and Amazon.
