Rosalind Brewer, 58, Walgreens’ new CEO and only Black woman to currently lead a Fortune 500 firm
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Rosalind Brewer
Chief Executive Officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
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Rosalind (Roz) Brewer joined Walgreens Boots Alliance as Chief Executive Officer in March 2021. She also is a Director on WBA’s Board. Ms. Brewer most recently served as Chief Operating Officer and Group President at Starbucks from October 2017 to January 2021. Prior to Starbucks, she served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Sam’s Club, a membership-only retail warehouse club and division of Walmart, Inc., from February 2012 to February 2017. Ms. Brewer previously held several executive leadership positions with Walmart beginning in 2006.
Prior to joining Walmart, she served as President of Global Nonwovens Division for Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a global health and hygiene products company, from 2004 to 2006, and held various management positions at Kimberly-Clark beginning in 1984.
She currently serves as the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees for Spelman College, where she did her undergraduate work. Ms. Brewer also is a Board Member of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Ms. Brewer formerly served on the Board of Directors for Starbucks, Amazon, Lockheed Martin Corporation and Molson Coors Brewing Company. She is currently ranked #27 on Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business.
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Walgreens’ new CEO Roz Brewer on bias in the C-suite: ‘When you’re a Black woman, you get mistaken a lot’
Published Wed, Jan 27 20212:30 PM EST
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Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Rosalind Brewer is continuing to blaze new trails in corporate America.
At the end of February, Brewer, who is the coffeehouse company’s first Black and first female COO, will be leaving her position to serve as CEO of drugstore chain Walgreens. In this new role, she will be the only Black woman currently serving as a Fortune 500 CEO, and just the third Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 firm in history. Ursula Burns, who served as the CEO of Xerox between 2009 and 2016 was the first, and Mary Winston, who served as interim CEO at Bed Bath & Beyond in 2019, was the second.
Prior to joining Starbucks in 2017, Brewer spent five years as the CEO of Sam’s Club, which is owned by Walmart. As a longtime executive in corporate America, she’s spoken openly about the bias and challenges she’s faced as one of very few Black women in the C-suite.
“When you’re a Black woman, you get mistaken a lot,” she said during a 2018 speech at her alma mater Spelman College, which is 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.’”
During the speech, Brewer recalled the time she was invited to an exclusive CEO roundtable in New York City when she was serving as the CEO of Sam’s Club. During the reception, she said, she met a fellow CEO and introduced herself in the same way the other men in the room had introduced themselves, “Roz Brewer of Sam’s Club.” After exchanging introductions, she said the fellow CEO asked her what she did at the company and proceeded to ask if she led marketing. Puzzled by the question as the invitation to the event stated that it was a roundtable for CEOs, Brewer says she responded by saying, “No, that’s part of my organization.”
After the man continued the conversation by asking if she worked in merchandising, Brewer said she gave the fellow CEO a “side-eye” as she was actually serving as the keynote for the event. “I enjoyed the look on his face when my bio was read,” she said. “It was a good day.”
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