LINTHICUM, Md.— This week, CARE Pharmacies Cooperative, Inc. announced that its chief executive officer, Mike Wysong, has been elected by the board of directors of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) to serve as NACDS president and chief executive officer, effective December 1, 2026. Wysong will succeed Steven Anderson, who is retiring after 20 years of leadership.
Wysong has led CARE Pharmacies since 2010. In that time, the cooperative has grown from 45 members generating $156 million in sales to more than 200 pharmacies across 28 states, with sales approaching $2 billion. CARE was named Regional Chain of the Year in 2021 and Pharmacy Innovator of the Year in 2026. Wysong previously served as chair of NACDS from April 2023 to April 2024 and continues to serve on the NACDS board of directors and executive committee.
“Mike has led CARE with distinction and leaves behind a standard of performance and a standard of stewardship that our members can see and feel,” said Dean Gruber, chairman of the CARE Pharmacies board of directors. “Mike helped grow a small franchise of independent pharmacies into a member-owned cooperative that competes at a national level without losing the character of the owners who built it. The Board is proud of what he has accomplished here, and we are grateful for his 16 years of service and are confident that the same discipline he brought to CARE will benefit NACDS and our profession at large.”
“It has been a privilege to serve at CARE Pharmacies for more than 16 years, and I am grateful to the NACDS board for the next opportunity to expand on the great work we did within our growing cooperative,” Wysong said. “I’m a big believer in people coming together at a moment of uncertainty and making it a moment of opportunity to refine and reshape our profession and our future. My new role at NACDS will be a broader platform to help strengthen the economics of pharmacy, enlarge pharmacy’s role in patient care, and help address the growing and unsustainable cost of healthcare in our country.”
Wysong began his career in sales and held leadership roles at Baxter, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen before joining CARE. He is widely recognized for a relationship-driven leadership style and for building connections across pharmacy, the supply chain, and the broader healthcare community. He is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Mount St. Mary’s University in 2026.
To ensure a smooth leadership transition, the CARE Pharmacies board of directors has established a CEO Search Committee to identify and recommend the cooperative’s next CEO. The committee will conduct a comprehensive search, considering qualified candidates with strong leadership experience in pharmacy, healthcare, and pharmaceutical distribution. The Board is committed to selecting a leader who will build on CARE’s success, strengthen member relationships, and guide the organization through its next phase of growth and innovation.
