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DEERFIELD, Ill. — New Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) chief executive officer Tim Wentworth has wasted little time in streamlining operations.
The company this month laid off 267 corporate-level workers, including chief merchandising officer Luke Rauch.
Those laid off represent 5% of WBA’s total corporate workforce and also included Robert Tompkins, group vice president and general merchandise manager for health and wellness, and chief medical officer Kevin Ban.
The shake-up followed the arrival of Wentworth in late October. He succeeded Roz Brewer, who stepped down in August.
“We’ve had to make some difficult decisions about budgets and investments, including stopping projects, dramatically reducing our spending and going line by line in our budgets to unlock all potential savings,” Wentworth wrote in a memo to employees about the company’s latest round of job cuts.
Rauch was responsible for overall merchandising strategy and execution across Walgreens’ more than 9,000 stores. He was previously chief of staff to the CEO, a position in which he helped drive the company’s pivot toward health care through an overhaul of strategy and culture. Prior to that, he was group vice president of customer experience and general manager of owned brands. He joined the company in January 2015 as director of pricing and promotions strategy.
Tompkins, who was promoted to his post in 2016, was with Walgreens for more than 30 years. He worked in a wide variety of departments, including as divisional merchandise manager for O-T-Cs. He began his career as a sales clerk; other roles included photo specialist, pharmacy technician and assistant store manager.
Chief clinical officer Sashi Moodley replaced Ban, who was named to his post in January 2020.
A memo from Wentworth to employees specified that no one at the store, microfulfillment center, or call center level would be impacted by the layoffs. WBA has about 238,000 employees worldwide.
The moves are WBA’s latest response to financial struggles. It earlier announced that it would be eliminating bonuses for corporate staff and reducing bonuses for pharmacy and store managers. In May, it cut about 500 corporate workers.
During their fourth quarter earnings call in October, executives said they would cut costs by $1 billion and lower capital expenditures by around $600 million. “We must support our customer-facing activities, scrutinize every penny of spend that does not directly benefit the customer and improve cash management,” said interim CEO Ginger Graham.
Adjusted earnings in the quarter dropped 17% year over year to $575 million, and for the year fell 20% to $3.4 billion.
Wentworth was founding CEO of Evernorth, Cigna’s health services organization that partners with health plans, employers and government organizations. Evernorth brought together health service capabilities including care provision, pharmacy solutions and benefits management.
Before that, he was named CEO of Express Scripts following its merger with Medco Health Solutions in 2012. He grew it into a Fortune 22 company with more than $100 billion in revenue and 26,000 employees, ranking No. 66 on Forbes magazine’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies.
Previously, he led Medco’s employer and key accounts organizations for nearly 14 years, also serving as president and CEO of Accredo, Medco’s specialty pharmacy.
Prior to joining Medco, Wentworth spent five years at Mary Kay Inc., where he initially served as senior vice president of human resources and later, president of its international business.
He also held roles of increasing responsibility over nine years in human resources management at PepsiCo.
He has an associate’s degree in business from Monroe Community College and a bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.
