Walgreens Announces Retirement Of Chief Strategy Officer John W. Gleeson
Walgreens recently said senior vice president and chief strategy officer John W. Gleeson, 61, is retiring on Feb. 29 after more than 45 years with the company.
"John was an 'idea' guy throughout his career," said Walgreens Chairman and CEO Jeffrey A. Rein. "He conceptualized the freestanding store concept, which Walgreens pioneered and has been pivotal to our growth since the early 1990s. He also headed our Strategic Inventory Management System project, which has saved billions of dollars in inventory investment. Most recently, John has led the work on our health care service initiatives. All of us at Walgreens thank him for his countless contributions and wish him a productive and enjoyable retirement."
Gleeson grew up with the company as the son of a 46-year Walgreen employee and store manger. He started in the stores as a stock clerk in 1962 and came to the corporate office as an analyst in the results department after graduating from the University of Illinois in 1969. He later served as divisional vice president of marketing systems and services and vice president of corporate strategy and treasurer. He was named to his current position in 2007.
Robert G. Zimmerman, 56, vice president of corporate development, will lead the strategy group. Zimmerman has 30 years of Walgreens experience and has held leadership roles in planning, strategy and administration, including 16 years at Walgreens Health Services, the company's managed care division.
Walgreens also announced that Howard A. Atlas, 47, a vice president of store operations, has been named to the new position of vice president of health and wellness integration. Atlas will report to Hal F. Rosenbluth, senior strategy consultant for health care at Walgreens and chairman of Take Care Health Systems, one of the largest managers of convenient care clinics and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens.
"Howard will bring understanding of our operations to Take Care Health, while also bringing Take Care expertise to Walgreens," said Rein. "By the end of calendar 2008, we'll have more than 400 stores with Take Care Health Clinics. We acquired Take Care last year to offer patients treatment for acute conditions by health professionals. But that is just the beginning. We also plan to develop convenience-oriented health and wellness services such as vaccinations, wellness management, monitoring of chronic diseases and administration of infused or injected specialty drugs. Take Care Health is the platform we'll use to bring these services to patients.
"Our vision is to provide more convenient access to quality, routine health care at an affordable cost to patients and payors, including employers. With the 7,000 easily accessible stores we'll have nationwide within two years, we're better positioned than any other retailer to succeed in offering this new level of health care."
About Walgreens
Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2007 sales of $53.8B. The company operates 6,179 stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico. Walgreens is expanding its patient-first health care services beyond traditional pharmacy through Walgreens Health Services, its managed care division, and Take Care Health Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary that manages 142 convenient care clinics at drugstores. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc. and Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC. More information about Walgreens is available at Walgreens.com.
SOURCE: Walgreens