A little over a month after Rosalind Brewer announced her departure from the company, transatlantic pharmacy chain Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) has announced the appointment of veteran healthcare industry executive Tim Wentworth as its new chief executive officer.

Wentworth, the former boss of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts prior to its acquisition by Signa, will assume the role effective 23 October.

Announcing his appointment, WBA praised Wentworth for growing Express Scripts into a Fortune 22 company with more than $100 billion in revenue and 26,000 employees. Wentworth also spent nearly 14 years at Medco, five years at Mary Kay and over nine years at PepsiCo.

WBA is in the midst of an overhaul to its business model, diversifying its business to expand into healthcare from its core pharmacy base. That shift, which was previously overseen by Brewer, has seen the company's shares lose around 40 per cent of their value.

Stefano Pessina, executive chairman, WBA, said: “The WBA Board has been focused on bringing in a CEO with deep healthcare experience, and we are pleased to welcome Tim Wentworth as the company’s new CEO.

“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 healthcare company,”

Wentworth said: “I believe in WBA’s vision to be the leading partner in reimagining local healthcare and well-being for all.

“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 personalised, coordinated care, and achieve better outcomes at a lower cost.”

In addition to Brewer's sudden departure after three years, WBA chief information officer Hsiao Wang earlier this month departed the company after just over a year. The company is also still on the hunt for a new chief financial officer after James Kehoe left in July after five years.

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