Walgreen Co.

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Walgreen Co. (WAG): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Walgreen Co. | Fortune

Walgreen Co. (WAG): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

Michelle Gethers, Chief Diversity Officer and Head, Corporate Responsibility, Inclusive Impact, and Sustainability, Visa Alethia Jackson, Senior Vice President, ESG, and Chief DEI Officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance Brian Tippens, Senior Vice President and Chief Social Impact Officer, Cisco Moderator: Holly Ojalvo, Managing Editor, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune Impact Initiative

Impact Initiative 2023: Inclusivity That Meets the Moment

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Michelle Gethers Corporate Responsibility, Inclusive Impact, and Sustainability, Visa Alethia Jackson, Walgreens Boots Alliance Brian Tippens, Cisco, Holly Ojalvo, FORTUNE

OK. And then uh we're getting ready for our next panel and I should introduce this by saying the following last year brought economic uncertainty. We all know that a mass layoffs for many organizations, data from REO labs found that more than 300 diversity equity and inclusion employees were laid off from major organizations de I officers that is a much higher attrition rates than any other job function. I think that's quite a shocking revelation in this next conversation, we'll hear from business leaders on how they are trying to remain committed to inclusivity amid these headwinds and amid of course, also a public outcry in certain circles against diversity efforts. Please welcome Michelle Getters, Chief Diversity Officer and head of corporate responsibility inclusive impact at Visa. Alicia Jackson, senior Vice president of ESG and Chief Diversity Officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance and Brian Tippetts, senior vice president and Chief Social Impact Officer at CISCO. They will be interviewed by Fortune's Deputy editorial director for live media, Ellie Austin. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you, Peter and welcome Michelle Alicia and Brian. We're so thrilled to have you with us, Michelle. I want to start with you So last year, Visa opened a big new office in Atlanta. And at the same time, the company committed to creating 1000 new jobs to start the office by 2025. Now, companies like Coca Cola CNN, Home Depot, they have HQS in Atlanta. And despite this, the city has the widest income inequality based on race in the whole of the US. And so to kick us off, my question is, is there a way for visa to ensure that its presence in the city has a meaningful trickle down effect so that it really positively impacts the day to day of minority communities? Yes. So thank you for the question. And we are very excited to be in Atlanta and we came here for three reasons because there's great talent here that is diverse. Our customers and clients are here and we believe in being part of community. And so the one of the first things we did to show the trickle down impact is we went to high school, which is one of the local high schools with a large percentage of Children in poverty. And we went to be part of financial education and we had the mayor there and many other city officials to say we have to invest at root causes and not just put band aids on and some of the root causes of poverty are education, their disparities in health, et cetera. So we're trying to be part of the ecosystem and not just an employer of choice, Alicia, I want to throw it back to Peter's introduction. He mentioned that we're seeing attrition um when it comes to de I roles at a higher rate than almost every other job function. And there's been a lot of different reasons thrown out and speculation as to why this might be. What's your perspective on this, concerning trend? For sure why? I mean, I'm definitely not in a position to speculate on the, the attrition. You're seeing, what I can speak about is our long history of having ad I officer. So for Walgreens and Walgreens Alliance, um we've had a diversity equity inclusion officer for over a decade. Um It's something that is just embedded in our business practice and what we do, we like to say that uh D I is in our DN DNA based on the customers and patients we serve and where we sit in communities across the country and, and Brian, I know you bring a bit more of an external perspective um to this discussion. Do you think this decline that we're seeing in the DN I function? Is it, is it terminal? Is there a way to turn the ship around? Yeah, I think it's about having embedded systems. And so we at Cisco have long had a commitment to diversity equity inclusion within the four walls of the company. We've long had diversity leaders. We've got our Chief Diversity Officer here today. Gloria, who's, who's joining for the couple of days, we in 2020 in the wake of racial reckoning of 2020 asked ourselves what we could do more to focus externally in communities and formulated a social justice office with 12 primary pillars, some internally facing, but a lot externally facing on increasing our number of African American owned partners and suppliers in our supply base and focusing on hbcus and the importance of that program was making it sustainable, making it sticky coming for the metrics that get reported to the board on a quarterly basis, creating those systems that are pervasive so that you don't see retraction when things get kind of bad externally, you mentioned metrics and that's a really interesting point. And Michelle and Alicia, I'd like to ask you, are there any metrics that you found to be particularly efficient? You depend on more than others when it comes to reporting your diversity and inclusion, Michelle, let let's start with you, you know what gets measured gets done. So it's really important to look at the key results, but it's also important to look at the indicators. So we do care about our representation rate of our Black Latinx mixed race, indigenous at the vice president level at the leader level as well as overall. But we also care about how we representing women because this intersectionality, how do we think about women at leadership levels? How do we think about women overall and then what are the leading indicators, the pipeline, who's interviewing, who and then who's getting promoted? So we look at several different um metrics and no single one Alicia. Have you got anything to add? Sure. Um Just uh similarly, we look at again, what is our leadership um level? And so we look at women, people of color, we overall, we look at uh representation for people with disabilities across our company and really try to ensure again that our workforce is reflective of the, you know, the communities we serve across the country and we measure and we report out. Um and so in our ESG report, we, you know, use very stringent standards about being able to quantify um our progress and um in our measures and you talked just then about leadership. Last month, it was announced that Ros Brewer is stepping down as CEO of Walgreens. Um that news was met with a lot of surprise, but also a degree of concern. I guess that one of only two female black CEO S in the Fortune 500 is, is stepping away on what this might mean for women and minorities more generally at the top level of corporate America. And I, I wonder um how are you talking to employees about Rose Brewer leaving? And also what are you doing to retain workers during this potential time of flux for the company? Sure. Well, first again, I'd like to thank Ros Brewer for her leadership and mentorship um during her tenure as the CEO of WB A and um and we, as our board has announced, we are searching for a new CEO and we'll look for diverse candidates as we always do um in consideration of the sort of candidate slate with respect to what are we doing for our team members. One of the great things and the things we're so proud of is that we have been working very hard for years to create a culture of inclusion. We have a strong business resource groups. And so those are uh you know, really looking to provide that space um where people feel included, where people's voices are heard. And so we have open conversations and we with authenticity as we look at our overall corporate values and wrap around our team members, not just now, but always. And so having already done the work of creating that culture, um it's helpful when you have challenging times. So it's a multi pronged approach really. Um I want to talk a bit about the rollback of affirmative action and its possible implications on the corporate world. One possibility that we are going to potentially see more of is lawsuits when it comes to DN initiatives. We've already seen a couple and I wonder how Brian, if let's put this question to you. Um First of all, what do you think companies could or should be doing to prepare for that possibility and is it going to make organizations less risk averse when it comes to their diversity and inclusion. Thank you for asking me the most controversial question. Can I say first on the issue of metrics? I, I love what Michelle said about what gets measured gets done. I think as we think about our metrics, we have to be thinking about tying our metrics to business value. I've long talked about the three CS of diversity. It's about compliance, meeting compliance requirements everywhere we need to, it's about corporate social responsibility, doing the right thing. But most importantly about competitive advantage, we have to show that diversity, equity inclusion adds to business value, whether it's around eliminating regrettable attrition or making sure that our employees needs are met or making sure we can satisfy our customers in the marketplace. We have to try do tie dollar value to the work that we do in terms of metrics. And then in terms of long term sustainability, I think we just have to be sure we're defensible in what we're doing and all of our programs are not, they're not quotas, they're not set aside. They're about making sure we have a wide table and we're looking at a broad set of candidates and making sure that all voices are heard. I think it will change the way that some people message what they're doing and that's a bad thing. Unfortunately, I think it's important that us companies that are in this and are about purpose, speak loudly about continuing to be about purpose, right? And so it's not about set asides or quotas or affirmative action. Really? It's about setting a wide table again so that all voices are heard. Michelle, I want to come to you on the the affirmative action question. And is the ruling in any way changing the way that you internally are thinking about DN I, the reality is as a purpose driven organization that believes that we do our best work when we are inclusive. And for us inclusion is this idea that we value the unique identity of everyone and their contributions so we can all reach our full potential. And so as we think about it, that way, we are staying the course, we are doing the right things and it is fundamental to our business model. We're a network of networks that exist everywhere and our reality is everyone is a visa card holder. We are in communities around the world. We should represent those communities and we should do it proudly. And we have, I I think Brian put it perfectly as he referred to. Let's not give it the wrong name and sabotage our work instead, let's be proud of this work because it's the right thing to do. And it's fundamental to good business practice and that's how we look at it and that's how we're thinking through and acting internally. It's undoubtedly the right thing to do. I I guess recently it's possibly become a bit more complicated and risky for want of a better word, Alicia. How is WB A thinking about this? Is it a question of taking external counsel? What steps are you taking to shore yourself up essentially against the possibility of legal action? Sure. Well, we continue to really shape all of our programs based on what our business values and business priorities. Um, as Brian says, what really helps us get the be the deepest talent bench, um and be able to serve all of our customers across the country, whether that's in part West Virginia or South side Chicago, where we were formed. And so we continue to look at it from that lens, what aligns to our business priorities and how we best positioned um to be innovative, to provide innovative services and products um that make us more competitive in the marketplace. I want to talk a bit about the growing partisanship that we're seeing across the country really and how that has really turned corporations into political battlegrounds. We only have to think of the bud light situation from earlier this year or target. And I wonder, Brian, I'm interested to hear maybe about a time when you and Cisco potentially or at a previous organization have found yourself in some sort of external cross hat if one springs to mind and, and how you navigate it. No, I I would say these external partnerships are critical because those are the folks that are doing the hard work, right. We invest a lot in equal justice initiative and Southern Poverty Law Center and, and HR C and in the long list that I'm sure a lot of us partner with and those organizations are frequently taking positions that might be viewed as controversial, but we have to be ok with that. Right? I think we have to invest in the companies or the organizations rather that are the feet on the ground that know best how to challenge these issues and be able to stand by our, I guess I'd say that we can't be reactive in these situations. We have to tie back to our corporate principles, our purpose as a company. And as long as we're doing that, we could feel kind of assured in standing our ground. So it's being willing to be controversial if you feel that it's for the right reasons and it aligns with your values, being willing to stand by our purpose, whether it's viewed as controversial or not, right? And sometimes we have to make these decisions that, you know, this is what we stand by, this is our purpose. We're not a waiver from this. And if you don't agree with this, maybe this is not the company for you and that's maybe where Bud Light and target they were different and that they did waiver slightly on, on their, on their decisions, Alicia on this subject earlier this year. Walgreens was criticized by Progressives for announcing that it would not dispense abortion pills in 21 states where Republican A had threatened legal action against pharmacies that did dispense the medication. And, and I wonder how you reflect on that moment now? Sure. So we never wavered on our position that we once certified by the FDA that we would dispense anywhere that any jurisdiction where it was legally permissible. And so we, we did not change that. And that was, I think people got the wrong message around that. But our, our, where we stood on that remained the same and that's where we currently stand. So unfortunately, I think it was a, a very uh confusing issue and it was a very complex issue, right? And so those take more than sound bites to understand. Um and it takes a bit of explanation, but again, where we came out very early saying that we would dispense and we didn't waiver from that. But so you think people misunderstood maybe that, that the headlines or that the media weren't reporting wasn't accurate around it? Can you just elaborate slightly on that? Sure. I will say our position never changed on, on, on the fact that we would dispense in jurisdictions where it was legally permissible. I would love to open this up to questions from the audience. Mr Alan Murray is, is, is a allowed to ask questions. Ok? I want to go back to the numbers that both Peter and Ellie cited because we clearly have three great companies represented here on the stage. We have Visa and Walgreens and Cisco. And we have great companies represented in the room. And I was thinking, listening to you talk, well, maybe we invited the wrong people to the conference, but something is going on out there when you look at those numbers of layoffs of DEI officials and you all three are very well plugged in, you know, the community. Well, what's your sense of what's happening more broadly outside of your company? I would say that in the wake of the racial reckoning of 2020 a lot of companies were very reactive. We've got to do something. We had an old crap moment in corporate America. So companies who tied this to purpose, our purpose at CISCO is to power an inclusive future for all right. So this was part of our DNA. This is not new, this is not being reactive. So that allowed us to stay the course companies that were reactive and said we've got to do something in 2022 years later, three years later says, oh, well, this is not cool anymore. This is not important to our customer base. And the second thing I would say was tying it to business value if a company can do away with the den I officers because it didn't have business value. Well, that's a problem, right? That the situation wasn't set up in such a way that the Den I leader was adding business value through the metrics that I talked about, you know, satisfying our customers or satisfying our team members? Right? Does that make sense? Any other questions from the floor? One question I have for Alicia and Michelle in particular, is that looking at your titles? Um It's clear that there seems to be a bit of a trend which is de I roles attached to other job functions, you both have other job titles attached. Um Other functions. Do you have as much time as you would like in these split roles to dedicate to de I initiative? I don't view my role as actually split. The reality is, is inclusion and diversity. If we stop thinking about it as a head count game is actually in a thread in your business. It exists when I talk to customers and clients, it exists when I think about community and philanthropy, it exists when I think about the environment. So it's not actually separate functions. It's about really understanding corporate responsibility and the value of inclusion and diversity in your business system, especially if you're purpose driven. So the answer is yes, I have plenty of time and I would agree completely. Sometimes people will ask, well, where does B I fit under the ES and the GM I answers, it fits under all of them and it is the running threat. If you're looking at the environment and especially your internal environment as far as your workforce and your team members. If you're looking at social impact, when you think about health equity, which is a big issue for us and something we're trying to tackle and when you think about community and then governance, good governance as well. And so it really does, it is that thread that runs through them all, it doesn't stand in isolation, but in fact, it is something that brings them all together. Michelle Alicia o'brien. Thank you so much. That's all we've got time for. And thank you.

Roz Brewer, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Walgreens Boots Alliance


Most Powerful Women 2022 - Breaking Barriers

Ladies, please welcome back fortunes Mahala, I'm back. Alright. This time it's gonna be very short. Can I have your attention? Hello ladies. Hi. Okay, so our conversation this evening is without question with one of the most influential women in corporate America no pressure Rosalind brewer rose through the ranks from her early days in management at Kimberly Clark to taking the reins as chief executive at Walgreens Boots Alliance in the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic, a move. She herself described as pretty gutsy and I think that's probably true. She was recently quoted as saying she's in the most rewarding moment of her career right now, we want to hear from her on that and also about her leadership toolbox and so much more. We're also happy to note that she is # seven on this year's list of most powerful women. So please welcome Rod to the stage along with my dear colleague and fellow coach, er Beth Cohen ross welcome um It has been five years since you have been with us on the M. P. W. Stage and we've missed you. So thank you for thank you for being back. Um What's happened since then you at the time you were Ceo sam's club, then you went to Starbucks. Now you are Ceo, That's a very abbreviated a lot of other things. Right, But in that time I'm sure you've got a lot of calls about Ceo job. Why did you take this one? Well, you know, actually best um timing is everything and um I was loving Starbucks. Um you couldn't tell me anything. Um I thought that that was like the best job ever. I mean it was fun, right? It's coffee, it's flat, you know, um you know, it was just, it was everything and um, I enjoyed a lot about it, but as things were happening around me, um, there was, you know, that growing activist in me and it wasn't enough, it, you know, when things happened and this moment came and the opportunity met the moment and um I sort of snapped in a good way, you know, and this was something that just pulled me in um and made me change my mind about a lot of things, tell me more about that house. So, so, you know, um, I think everyone knows, you know, this pandemic was just horrific and um, I joined in March of 21, it was 30 days before vaccines were being administered. So the death toll was very high. Um, I had been seeing and experiencing through friends and family, the, you know, the health inequities that were happening and um, I knew I had been part of healthcare years ago, so ran tons of retail pharmacies through my time at walmart and at Sam's club and then I had a health care role at Kimberly clark. So healthcare has always been right for disruption. So I saw this as a um, problem, ready to burst, right? And so executing vaccines while people were dying at this high rate, um, and affecting everything around us on the backs of social unrest, Our communities were not ready for this. Um, and so I just felt like it was time for me to take everything I've learned and put it against one of the biggest problems I thought I was gonna ever face in my life. So as we all said, you know, it was a gutsy move as you've acknowledged, um, how has that shaped your ambition for Walgreens taking over in the middle of a pandemic? How's that shaped your thinking? So, you know, um, you learn a lot in a crisis and usually, you know, a lot of innovation happens. Um, that's in fact what happened to us if I just isolate just vaccine administration alone, um, just creating the technology around the scheduling tool, right? And so you come into an environment that is a pharmacy led environment. I learned quickly on day two that they had not done, You know, um, a lot of opportunity was there for digital and technology. And so we had 30 days to build a system. And um, all my friends from tech called me and said, Hey, you know, come over our right to program for you in two seconds, you know, and so I called on every friend we had and the team was actually raring to go, but you know, having done, um, a lot of digital work in my career. Um, this reminded me of, you know, the time in retail when we had to figure out how to become a digital entity and look at all the different channels of access for retail and that was the same thing. We needed access to vaccines and people needed a place and know how to get in and they needed knowledge and they need education. And so, um, you know, it's such a flashback to the retail transformation and so we just we put all that to bear, but it's it's what it has done for me is to say you likely do your best work when your challenge and the timeline is shortened and the resources look limited. And that's when you see that young engineer just step up and blow it out, right? And you know, they never would have gotten that opportunity. And so I've learned that, you know, I have talent in the bowels of the company. Um, I also learned that, you know, having, um, a one single objective, you know, our objective was shots in arms and that we, you know, we had t shirts that said that just very simply right? And so we ended up putting 70 million shots in arms. So, um, you know, so I quickly got a chance to see the company from the inside out, um, through the crisis. And um, I'll tell you, I've actually fallen in love with the company. I mean it has so much opportunity for growth and in an industry that's just right for change. So I want to talk about your own ambition for a second. Okay. At what point in your career did you know you were going to be a ceo Oh shoot, I never really knew that, you know, it just kind of came, I think that's really, you know um I think all of us can say this, we've seen we've had good leaders and we've had bad leaders and I've always tried to wedge myself in between those and so I never will do that. Um Or I like that, right? And so um you know I've had those opportunities but then it really came to me that um in many cases um you know I had more skills than I knew or believed, right? And and that's the closest the closer I got to C. E. O. S, you know being chief operating officer at Starbucks um really taught me, you know the importance of execution and planning and um then setting vision and bold ideas and so I quickly, you know, learned that it was probably time, right? I was bumping up a little bit more than I probably should have been or you know, maybe you know the ceo maybe thought but you know it's um you know and I don't mean in a bad way I'm just saying you know we were we were good partners. Um but I saw my potential at that point, I like that, I like that. So how have you thought about your career, have you said yes to everything? How is that? Thinking evolved over time? No, no, I got really clear, you know, I had, I had, there was a point in my career where I had so many, um, what I would call grunt jobs that it was making me sick to my stomach, I was like, okay, one more time, okay, I'll go do the worst job ever and make the best of it, right? And so after a while it was like over that, right? And so I, um after a while I started being very critical about, I don't want to, you know, like, I didn't say I want to be a ceo of a healthcare entity. I said I don't want to do that, that doesn't interest me, but I got very, very clear and said, no, titles never impressed me. Money never impressed me. I really wanted to be in the place where it was happening, right? You know, I know that there's this little tiny thing in me that feels like change is always got to happen and if it's not happening, I want to push it and make it happen and you can't do that sometimes from the back row, you've got to be, you know, up there, but then you can't do it without the skills. And so I quickly knew I've got to build in order to get where I can do my best work and when I feel my best self and that's when I'm right on the edge of where it's happening. So that's um you did not start out on a traditional ceo path though. I mean you started as a bench chemist. I did, I did. So how did you make that transition in turn? Yeah, so, you know, I was probably one of those, you know, loud nagging bench chemist that was like, you know, dang it, I gotta, you know, do you know, stuck in the lab on Saturdays, you know, you start because I was actually, I'm an organic chemist. And so I started off really just doing wet chemistry and it's kind of isolating right? There's like nobody in the lab but you and a couple other scientists and then, you know, you're on the end of research and development that gets, you know, gets cut, you know, that's where cost cutting happens. And so you get so excited about developing and creating something and, you know, the budget shifts. And so I got a little frustrated with that. So I eventually moved over to um, you know, actually I went into m and a at that point with Kimberly clark and I was on the side with the um, you know, valuing uh patent estates and things like that. So part of the business team, but on the periphery of it, but then I just came inside through that way and did you ask for that? No, actually I didn't know what was going on, I didn't understand them and a I was like, what's going on? They're like, well, you know, we're like a paper company and we want to be in, you know, consumer products, you know, we want to be like PNG. I was like, okay, whatever, I don't really understand what I was doing, they were like just go out with the lawyers and the finance team, we're gonna think about this company, you know, kind of, you know, value their patent status, you know, So I was like, okay, the next thing and I was like, oh, this is M and A okay, you know? Really? I mean, I just wasn't, I mean, I was five or six years into my career, I did not know what I was doing, I don't have an M. B. A. I didn't have a financial background, but I was there to bring the expertise on the technology side. So you are the youngest of five, I am first generation in your family to go to college and you were the yeah. And and you were the first correctness around the first of the five kids to leave the state to go to. That's right, that's right. How has that shaped you? I mean, clearly you were already cutting your own path that at that point, yeah, yeah. You know, my family thought I was like totally like crazy, like why would you leave michigan, there's like you have them there, Michigan state, wayne state, you know, wonderful community colleges, all that I loved, right? And but I, you know, I didn't like the cold weather and then I saw this, I saw this brochure on the south and Spelman College, I was like oh I like that, right? So I was looking for um fun and frolic, you know, like Like anybody else, I was 18 years old and it happened to be outside of Michigan. So right, but I mean you you talked about this before, it was hard for your family know it was hard, you know, because while I was in school my dad was my sophomore year, my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer and he was 49 and then by six weeks before I graduated from college he passed away. And so for him he was the one was just like education, I mean he was just like plowing it into me, you know, I could get a C and he'd be like, you know, that's great. And so for him not to be, there was really hard, so you know, I broke away but you know, it was I grew up really fast because by the time I finished school um you know, and then there was a point in there where there were four of us in college and my dad worked three jobs and my mom worked, you know, I was a latchkey child at three years old because I was the youngest of five and everybody was off doing their thing. My oldest sister is nine years older than me. And so they would prop me in the window. Um, at about 2 30 my mom would go work the afternoon shift And I'd be sitting in the window like this and all the neighbors would be walking down the street because you know, that's when, you know, your neighbors raised you in addition to your parents, that's when we lived in villages, right? And everybody took care of each other. And um, I'd be sitting in the window until the older siblings got home from school and I did that until I was five years old from 3-5. I have to ask you more about spelman because I know this is so important to you. Um, you said that There you really learned the importance of seeing yourself and other people tell me more about that. Yeah. So, you know, Spelman is a unique place and it is very special to me. I've been working with the college ever since I graduated and chairing the board for the last 10 years, but you know, going to school with, um, you know, all black women, you know, I came from a pretty diverse school, but predominantly white high school. And so to be shoulder to shoulder with women who had experiences similar to mine and some not because, you know, there's a broad socioeconomic um, student based at Spelman, you know, the positions and lawyers, kids and you know, and then my parents being auto workers, right? And so I saw really the diversity within the diversity and I never thought there was diversity within diversity. I never thought that until I got to that school. And so it's taught me a lot about, you know, race relations in a way that it is very specific and particular about that person's lived experiences is not about their exterior at all. Um, and so, but it took that experience for me to learn that. And I, you know, I feel better, um, stronger because of it. So you had a very different experience than when you entered corporate America. Um, Oh yeah. So you and I talked about this before, but you know how your accomplishments are often positioned as the first or the only. Yeah. Tell me, tell us honestly how that makes you feel. You know, it's I, you know, I really mean this seriously, it's never a good feeling because first of all, I'm still like walking in being the only one in the room, right? And then, um, I looked down and, you know, young women and I, and I know what I've been through and I said, you know, I just want to like quit my job and like help, right? Because, you know, I've seen it, right? And I see what's on their faces. And so it doesn't feel good to be the only because, you know, this should be moving, it should be much stronger than what it is right now. We should be moving in tandem with, you know, multitudes of people. Um So it doesn't feel good when when, when I hear that, you know, um because it just shouldn't be and, you know, I hope that I can do as much as I can to change that, but it's gonna take more than me to do that. I realized that yeah. Um I want to end by, you know, we have a group uh from the military community here. And you met some of them earlier. Yeah. And you'll hear a little bit more about them right after this. But what advice would you get them as they think about their own careers? You know, First of all, I mean, I've hired so many people from the military, you know, I'd like to, there's some walmart folks here, I would say I'm just gonna hold walmart out, they do a fantastic job of hiring uh post military. I'm just going to give them their kudos and I learned that when I was there um with them. And um I, you know, to see what um someone with a military background and their level of execution and expertise and focus. Um I mean, I'd hire them, you know, every day of the week because I see a skill set to drive a hunger, the independence. You know, if you've been in the military, that's a very deliberate decision. You wanted to be there, you wanted to make change happen and you were doing something for the greater good, not just for yourself. So wonderful humans dedicated, hard working. So I just say to all of the women in the room that our post military, thank you first for serving our country and um, so proud of you and um, second of all, you know, they've got, they've got the stuff, you know, I'm proud of them every time I've hired when I've been more and more impressed every time. So good advice for everyone here, hire them, hire them rod. Thank you so much for being here. We're so glad you're back. Um, really enjoyed, glad to be here. Thank you.

But that may change sooner rather than later.

There are only 44 women and 6 Black CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies

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Only 44 women and 6 Black CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies

There are 44 women ceo at the helm of Fortune 500 companies this year. Up three from last year. These women led companies are from a wide range of industries including but certainly not limited to the banking, financial services, healthcare, insurance, retail. The list goes on. So number four we have CVS health. It's run by Karen Lynch. She is the top ranking of women C. E o. S in the Fortune 500. She's one of the most powerful women in the world and she's helping one of the most powerful companies in the world. And there are five new women Ceos who have taken office this year. Laura Priest corn is the Ceo of Jackson Financial. Ellen cooper is the Ceo of Lincoln National's Joyce mullen is Ceo of insight enterprises, Sarah London head Centene and Sarah nash is the interim Ceo of Bath and body works for this push of diversity in getting new faces of leadership were really still not seeing much by way of diversity improvements among the Fortune 500 though three is better than none, but it's still not even 10% of the list. You could say it's significant because it's not really much significant change. There hasn't been a lot of movement and Ceo in general last year. There were five black Ceos of Fortune 500 companies this year. There are six. That list includes Marvin, Ellison, the Ceo of Loews robert, Ruskin, founder and Ceo of compass frank Clyburn, the Ceo of international flavors and fragrances, David Rawlinson, the Ceo of Kerry retail and two black female Ceo to Shonda Brown Ducat of T. I A and Raspberry were of Walgreens Boots Alliance. We do expect to see a lot of seats open up over the next year. We're seeing a lot of CEOs in the same seats. A lot have been sort of hunker down mode as they've been trying to get their companies through the storm of the economy and what's happening in the world right now, we think that will change. Burnout is hitting even the top ranks of Ceo. So you're going to see more seats open up, which of course presents more opportunities for diverse talent to come in and lead.

A discussion with Color CEO, Threshold Co-founder and Carbon Health CEO. 

How COVID-19 has caused big shifts in healthcare 

so those of you who are working and investing in this space for for years, you know, I think there's long been this question of like, what's it really gonna take to change our health care system in this country. And I guess the answer was a pandemic or or was it like what do you think will be the lasting changes, whether it's the way uh private public sectors work together um and companies within the private sector collaborate um the regular circulatory system access, like what are the lasting changes? What do you hope will be the lasting changes? I would see the biggest secular shift I've seen the health care industry is that today measures of the health care delivery is done by legacy service providers who don't have much tak we just use third party systems and they just like exist because there is a source hole in a region. And I think the over the next decade or so a much larger percentage of the delivery will be done by companies which deeply integrate operations, clinical technology together. So health care providers will have to be, you know, implements and building technology like much deeper face. So that transition is almost going to is almost certainly going to happen. And I think what the pandemic is created the there's a very dynamic situation like your your patient works go up by five x six x like overnight and like it's impossible for a traditional additional campus who doesn't own the technology to be able to work in this environment. So it actually is pushing more and more of the care to companies which can really iterating how did in their credible model in a weekly, monthly basis, it's just really accelerating the ship. That would like to happen anyways. Yeah, I mean I think if you think about innovation and technology like duck move quick and break things and healthcare is historically then moves slowly and don't kill people and so that meant that things just took time and being an investment things means you have to have patience. The trends that we're talking about aren't necessarily new, empowering the consumers using virtual care. The fact we're calling it telehealth, I don't even own a telephone, like being on a phone is not innovative care, it's leveraging care models with technology and what covid did is it took these, these ideas out of innovation or we'll experiment with it to a business necessity overnight. You had to change your care models to be able to reach your patients and that genie is out of the bottle and it's out of the bottle in the sense that help systems were broken the things they said they couldn't do, they suddenly had to do and did it and the consumers are like, wait a minute this works for me, I need these modalities and they're not going back and so I do think it is the catalyst, the jolt to the system to actually lead to transformative change. But I think the companies that are going to capture it including the ones around the stage with me today, it's the new entrance that have those first principles are thinking about it differently. So I'm going to be the healthcare companies of the future. I'm just building off of that and I'm curious, you know, you guys, you were at it for several years, pre covid, but doing something kind of different, you pivoted, you went through yourself a pretty massive transformation and laying down infrastructure with partners to do what you're doing now. Just just give us a little bit of a sense of the scale of how much you transform the company. Yeah, it's been a very big kind of threshold moment for I think a lot of folks who have been kind of working on things that You could serve something that looked like it was 20 years in the future. And I think what happened in the last two years is that complete change people's expectations, both in terms of the, you know, individuals like all of us as well as the buyers um, in terms of immediacy and what's necessary. I mean like right now we're running for example, the biggest school testing program in the entire country, you know, across uh, well over a dozen states. Um like they're almost as many testing or vaccine sites that were running that are as our Walgreens in the US and that was all infrastructure that got, you know, put up in the last year. Right? And um, and to your point, like, you know, I really like the, I think one of the big disconnect that happened is that all used to be very tied to physical capital expense and physical infrastructure And but when you're, when the question is like how do I do 30 times the number amount of testing that we now as we were doing last year, how do we vaccinate millions of people? You need to fundamental disconnect that from like building buildings and you know, hiring huge armies and so on. And I think that like forcing function I think has forced like you know, this this more distributed model of care like you know, that had been I think slowly moving for a long time, right? Like you know, but number of companies like ours like you know, like carbon and so on had been trying to push health care to the edge, but this is like, you know, just basically shoved it uh, you know at a pace that would have been impossible I think, to synthesize otherwise

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