After Rosalind ‘Roz’ Brewer left her role as head of Walmart’s Sam’s Club business in 2017, she was offered the CEO position at a private equity firm—a role that she has said would have been easy.
But Brewer turned it down, instead opting to become the No. 2 at Starbucks as chief operating officer and head of Americas at the $23.5 billion coffee giant.
It turns out Brewer played her cards right. On March 15, Brewer will become CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance—the nearly $140 billion retailer and pharmacy that ranks No. 19 on the Fortune 500. The stock was up nearly 8% in after-hours trading in a strong show of confidence in Brewer from Wall Street.
When Brewer takes the job, she will be one of 40 women running a Fortune 500 company, as well as the only Black woman—and only the third in history. Ursula Burns was the first Black woman to head a Fortune 500 company when she became chief executive of Xerox in 2009; she stepped down in 2016. Mary Winston, who briefly led Bed Bath & Beyond as interim CEO in 2019, was the second.
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