Walgreens Boots Alliance taps former Cigna exec Tim Wentworth as CEO

Ex-Cigna and Express Scripts executive Tim Wentworth is slated to join Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) later this month as CEO, taking over from Rosalind Brewer, who left the company.

Plans call for Wentworth to take the CEO reins on Oct. 23, at which time he will also join the board of directors, WBA said in announcing his appointment late Tuesday evening. Brewer departed the company on Aug. 31, and WBA lead independent director Ginger Graham has been serving as interim CEO.

“I am honored and excited for the incredible opportunity to lead the next phase of WBA’s evolution, working with the board and WBA leadership to deliver sustainable value and results. WBA has a differentiated model with the power to build on the company’s pharmacy strength and trusted brand to evolve health care delivery. I believe in WBA’s vision to be the leading partner in reimagining local health care and well-being for all,” Wentworth said in a statement.

Wentworth currently serves as chairman of Forge Health, a provider of value-based mental health and substance use care. Previously, he was founding CEO of Evernorth, health insurance giant Cigna’s $100 billion health services organization, which partners with health plans, employers and government organizations. In that post, which he held from September 2020 to December 2021, Wentworth brought together health service capabilities such as care provision, pharmacy solutions and benefits management, WBA noted.

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He came to Cigna with the company’s late 2018 acquisition of Express Scripts, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits manager, where he served as president and CEO from December 2016 to December 2021. Joining the PBM through its April 2021 merger with rival Medco Health Solutions, he grew the combined firm into a company with more than $100 billion in revenue and 26,000 employees.

Tim Wentworth, Walgreens Boots Alliance's new CEO. / Photo courtesy of WBA

“I’ve spent my career working to improve the health of the patients we’ve served. I believe WBA is well-positioned to deliver more personalized, coordinated care, and achieve better outcomes at a lower cost,” Wentworth added. “I fully recognize the challenges that health plans, health care providers, pharmacies and retailers are confronting today and am confident that WBA, and its customer- and patient-focused teams, can seize the opportunities of a dynamic marketplace and be the partner of choice.”

At Medco, Wentworth led employer and key accounts organizations for almost 14 years and served as president and CEO of Accredo, Medco’s specialty pharmacy arm. Prior to Medco, Mr. Wentworth spent five years at Mary Kay Inc., where he initially held the post of senior vice president of human resources and later became president of the PBM’s international business. He also held roles of increasing responsibility over nine years in human resources management at PepsiCo.

Related:CIO Hsiao Wang marks latest Walgreens Boots Alliance C-suite exit

Wentworth brings nearly three decades of leadership and health care industry experience to WBA. Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported that Wentworth was a candidate to succeed Brewer.

“The WBA board has been focused on bringing in a CEO with deep health care experience, and we are pleased to welcome Tim Wentworth as the company’s new CEO,” WBA Executive Chairman Stefano Pessina stated. “He is an accomplished and respected leader, with profound expertise in the payer and pharmacy space as well as supply chain, IT and human resources. We are confident he is the right person to lead WBA’s next phase of growth into a customer-centric health care company.”

More work ahead for WBA

The appointment of Wentworth comes as WBA looks to fill a couple of other C-suite vacancies. Since late July, the company has seen not only the departure of Brewer but also global chief financial officer James Kehoe and chief information officer Hsiao Wang.

Related:Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer steps down

“I look forward to working with Tim, as well as the rest of the board and WBA leadership, to lead WBA into a successful future,” Pessina added. “I also want to thank Ginger Graham for her leadership and immense commitment to our people and operations during this interim period. We look forward to welcoming her back as the board’s lead independent director.”

Overall, WBA operates about 13,000 retail pharmacy locations across the United States, Europe and Latin America, including almost 9,000 U.S. drug stores under the Walgreens and Duane Reade banners. With a presence in nine countries and more than 325,000 employees, the company is one of the world’s largest purchasers of prescription drugs and many other health and wellness products.

WBA’s portfolio of health care services also includes majority stakes in VillageMD (primary care services and clinics), Shields Health Solutions (specialty pharmacy) and CareCentrix (home health care) as well as an equity interest in AmerisourceBergen (pharmaceutical distribution).

“We view the appointment of seasoned health care executive Tim Wentworth as CEO positively and expect him to provide the leadership, strategic vision and acumen necessary to execute on WBA’s push into the provision of health care services,” Jefferies analyst Brian Tanquilut said in a research note on Wednesday. “While we are not expecting an immediate inflection in earnings performance, particularly given near-term drags from its health care segment, we have improved confidence in WBA’s ability to pivot its business model and build a viable health care offering.”

Though calling Wentworth’s hiring a “solid first step,” Tanquilut noted that “there’s still a lot of heavy lifting that needs to happen” to rejuvenate WBA.

“While we are excited about the appointment of Tim Wentworth, we believe the path to turning WBA around remains long,” Tanquilut wrote in his report.

“First, the company still needs to hire a capable CFO who could provide the Street with credible financial targets that would instill confidence in the company among investors. Second, WBA’s health care assets—particularly VillageMD—appear to be underperforming financially, and we believe that bringing that segment around to sustained profitability is a multi-year process that won’t see notable inflection near term, even with new management,” he explained. “Third, WBA has put together disparate health care assets (e.g. Shields, CareCentrix, virtual care, VillageMD/Summit, Health Corners, Pearl partnership), and new management needs to build a strategy that pulls together all these capabilities into a more unified, cohesive and synergistic offering. And we think that such an effort will take time and a lot of execution. Fourth, macro challenges related to the impact of high inflation on consumers—as well as headwinds that the company’s retail segment (front-store) had already been seeing even pre-COVID that translated to same-store and market share losses—will likely continue to drag on overall company performance.”