Walgreens CEO Recruits New Healthcare Leader
Tim Wentworth, the new CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, is replacing the company’s top healthcare services executive as part of a series of broader leadership moves.
John Driscoll, who joined Chicagoland-based Walgreens Boots in 2022 after the company bought homecare venture CareCentrix, will step down from his role as president of U.S. healthcare April 1 and be succeeded by former Solera Health CEO Mary Langowski. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Walgreens said that it expects Driscoll will stay on as a consultant “for a limited period of time.”
Langowski has been CEO of Solera Health, a managed services organization that markets engagement-focused technologies to payers and employers, since 2020. Before that, she was chief strategy and corporate development officer at CVS Health from 2014 to 2016, work that helped set the stage for that company’s purchase of Aetna.
“I’ve had the chance to collaborate with John Driscoll and the Walgreens team for several years, and I’m entering this new chapter excited about the opportunities ahead,” Langwoski wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “Healthcare needs more of the trust, convenience and personal connection Americans have with Walgreens. I’m looking forward to working alongside Tim, this dynamic team, and our growing network of payer, provider, health system and pharma partners to drive better health for patients. I’m also incredibly appreciative of the ongoing support and partnership from John.”
Alongside Langowski’s hiring, Wentworth last week also announced that interim CFO Manmohan Mahajan has taken on that role in a full-time capacity and said that Elizabeth Burger will join his team as chief human resources officer next month after holding the same role at manufacturing companies FlowServe and HanesBrands.
Walgreens’ healthcare services group rang up revenues of $1.9 billion in the company’s most recent fiscal quarter and posted an EBITDA loss of about $39 million. The company’s leaders are forecasting that the unit, which comprises CareCentrix as well as the Shields specialty pharmacy and a large investment in the VillageMD retail clinic chain, will break even this year on an adjusted EBITDA basis.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. also is seeing some C-level change: Longtime executive Dirk McMahon last week gave notice that he will retire from the healthcare giant April 1. McMahon, who is 64, has been with Minnesota-based United since 2003 and has been its president and chief operating officer since February 2021. Before that, he was CEO of the UnitedHealthcare insurance group and president and COO of Optum, the company’s healthcare services and technology arm, among other things.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, United said McMahon “helped the people of UnitedHealthcare and Optum consistently deliver strong, market-leading growth and performance, while continuing to build the consumer, clinical and technological capabilities the organization needs to deliver on its mission.”
In its filing, United did not say whether it will fill the roles now held by McMahon, who before joining the company was head of airport operations worldwide at Northwest Airlines.
