New Walgreens CEO will be the only Black Woman in Fortune 500

Walgreens’ newly appointed Chief Executive Officer, Rosalind ‘Roz’ Brewer will be the only Black woman chief executive in Fortune 500.

Brewer’s new appointment came three years after she left her role as head of Walmart’s Sam’s Club business in 2017. She was then offered the role of the CEO at a private equity firm – a role that she said would have been easy but declined nonetheless. She turned down the offer for a position at Starbucks as chief operating officers and head of Americas.

Her choice of accepting the Starbucks role seemed to have placed her on the right part to becoming the new CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Brewer will officially begin her role at Walgreens on March 15, 2021.

The retailer and pharmacy giant has a valuation of nearly $140 billion and ranks No. 19 on the Fortune 500. After the company’s announcement of Brewer as the new CEO, shares of Walgreens were up nearly 8% in after-hours trading which showed strong confidence in her leadership.

When Brewer officially starts her role as CEO of Walgreens, she will be one of the 40 women running a Fortune 500 company, and the only Black woman – the third out of three Black women to run a Fortune 500 company. Ursula Burns was the first Black woman to run a Fortune 500 company when she was appointed chief executive of Xerox in 2009, until 2016 when she stepped down. Mary Winston was the second Black woman to make it to the Fortune 500 list after she briefly served as chief executive of Bed Bath & Beyond as interim CEO.

“Brewer brings to WBA a proven track record of leadership and operational expertise at multi-national corporations,” Walgreens said in a statement. Adding that, outgoing CEO Stefano Pessina will be appointed the new executive chairman of the board.

“She is a distinguished and experienced executive who has led organizations globally through periods of changing consumer behavior by applying innovation that elevates customer experiences,” Pessina said.

Brewer will be leaving her role as COO of Starbucks after three years working on its executive team. She is largely credited to the cleanup of the company’s stores and instilling more discipline in its operations, a skillset she picked up during her time at Walmart.

Brewer was listed No. 48 on the Forbes 2020 Power Women list. She is well-known for advocating for Black working-class women and has shared a few of her experiences as a Black female executive.

“When you’re a Black woman, you get mistaken a lot,” Brewer said during a 2018 speech at her alma mater Spelman College, an all-women HBCU. “You get mistaken as someone who could actually not have that top job. Sometimes you’re mistaken for kitchen help. Sometimes people assume you’re in the wrong place, and all I can think in the back of my head is, No, you’re in the wrong place.’”

Brewer was also instrumental in organizing a racial bias training for 175,000 Starbucks employees after the company was criticized for racial bias in 2018.

Walgreens boots is a fortune 500 company and its newest CEO is Rosalind Roz Brewer. She’ll be in charge of leading the company to profit. The company has enjoyed immense profit and it been around for a long time. It has over 450,000 with over $139 Billion in revenue.

Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc:  market cap as of today January 2021 is $43.38 B and the stock is trading at $50.02 per share.