Boots parent company WBA announced last week (September 1) that its board of directors and chief executive Rosalind Brewer “mutually agreed” on her departure from the role and the company’s board as of August 31.
Ms Brewer joined WBA less than three years ago, when she made history by becoming the first woman and first African American to lead a Walmart division.
Read more: UPDATED: Boots CFO Michael Snape quits after five years in role
WBA said that current lead independent director Ms Graham has been appointed as interim chief executive “while the company conducts a search for a permanent CEO” during this “leadership transition”.
The news means that two of WBA’s top positions are now held by bosses with interim titles, with former chief financial officer (CFO) James Kehoe leaving the company earlier this summer after five years and his role being taken temporarily by Manmohan Mahajan.
Earlier in the year, Michael Snape also left Boots after spending five years as the multiple’s CFO.
“Smooth transition”
Ms Brewer said that she was “grateful to have had the opportunity to lead WBA and to work alongside such talented and dedicated colleagues” and that she is “proud of what we accomplished together”.
She will continue to advise WBA while it searches for a permanent holder of the role with the support of a “leading global executive search firm”, the company said.
Ms Graham, who has served on the WBA board of directors since 2010, added that her focus will be on “ensuring a smooth transition as soon as we identify the next CEO for the future”.
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WBA executive chair Stefano Pessina thanked Ms Brewer “for her contributions to WBA”, adding that the board appreciated “her hard work and commitment to the company” during a period of “unprecedented change”.
He added that Ms Graham “is the ideal person to serve as interim CEO, given her leadership experience across multiple segments of the healthcare industry, deep knowledge of WBA and strong operational skills”.
Sale rumours
It comes after Boots revealed plans to close 300 branches where they are located “in close proximity to each other” in June, with closures starting the following month.
This followed rumours reported by financial website This is Money this spring that Boots UK could be “sold or floated by the end of the year”.
At the time, it claimed that Boots’ WBA bosses have been “put under huge pressure to break up the global pharmacy giant” by investors and board members.
Read more: Boots reports 2% pharmacy sales growth amid renewed sale rumours
It claimed that investors viewed Boots and other European operations “as a distraction” and were pushing WBA executives to “speed up plans to refocus the business on the US”.
A report published a few months later by pharmacy sales specialists Hutchings claimed that WBA is “in the throes of undertaking a strategic review of Boots pharmacies, possibly with an eye to a future sale”.
Read more: Boots recoups losses as post-tax profits rocket to £15m
Hutchings claimed that “private equity investors are rumoured to be potential suitors”.
At the time, a Boots spokesperson told C+D that “nothing [had] changed” since June 2022, when WBA announced its decision to keep Boots under its ownership.
