Walgreens Boots Alliance announces CEO appointment

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. on Thursday announced that its board of directors has appointed Stefano Pessina to CEO, effective immediately.

Pessina, who has been serving as acting CEO since January, will continue reporting to executive chairman James Skinner. Pessina’s appointment was announced with the financial results for the third quarter.

“In just six months since the strategic combination that formed Walgreens Boots Alliance, we are beginning to make progress in our operations, as we were able to deliver another strong quarter,” Pessina said. “Our Retail Pharmacy USA division produced a solid increase in comparable prescriptions filled in the quarter, along with improved retail front-end margins and very good cost control. Our other divisions continued to perform as we expected. Of course, there is more work to be done as we move forward. The fourth quarter is typically the slowest quarter because of seasonality in the business, while prescription reimbursement pressure continues to impact our pharmacies, making retail margin expansion and cost control as important as ever.”

Pessina previously served as Alliance Boots executive deputy chairman. Prior to the merger of Alliance UniChem and Boots PLC, Pessina was executive deputy chairman of Alliance UniChem. He was also previously chief executive at Alliance UniChem from 2001-04.