DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreen Co. has rounded out its pharmacy purchasing and pharmacy supply chain leadership team with several promotions and a pair of new hires.
A Walgreens spokeswoman said Monday that the moves come in the wake of the company’s appointment of former Merck executive Jeffrey Berkowitz as senior vice president of pharmaceutical development and market access last September.
Frank DeStefano has been promoted to group vice president of pharmacy purchasing and supply chain. The 19-year Walgreens veteran has led the drug store chain’s pharmacy purchasing department since April 2004 as divisional vice president of pharmacy purchasing and strategy. In his new role, DeStefano will be responsible for the purchasing of branded and generic pharmaceuticals as well as Rx inventory optimization for retail, mail, specialty, home infusion, on-site and worksite pharmacy units.
Meanwhile, Mike Bleser has been promoted to divisional vice president of pharmacy supply chain and analytics and will be responsible for the strategic management of pharmacy inventory across the enterprise, according to Walgreens. Bleser joined the pharmacy chain as manager of reporting and analysis in 1993 and has been a big contributor in his roles in e-commerce, corporate strategy and, most recently, pharmacy purchasing, the company noted
Also, Mike Allen has been promoted to divisional vice president of generic pharmacy purchasing and strategy, in which he will oversee all generic drug purchasing for Walgreens. He was previously divisional merchandise manager for generics. Allen joined Walgreens in 1998 as a pharmacist and later served as a pharmacy manager in Chicago until 2003, when he joined Walgreens Health Initiatives as a clinical pharmacist. He has served as an associate category manager of brands and generics, a category manager for specialty and mail service pharmacy, and a divisional merchandise manager for brands, wholesalers and vaccines.
Joining Walgreens’ pharmacy purchasing team are Jeff Foreman, as divisional vice president of brand Rx wholesaler and vaccine purchasing, and Gerry Gleeson, as divisional vice president of pharmaceutical development.
Foreman comes to the drug chain from Cardinal Health Inc. where he was vice president of strategic purchasing, marketing and business development. At Cardinal, he was responsible for half of the distributor’s pharmaceutical purchasing and for negotiating fee-for-service agreements with branded pharmaceutical manufacturers. He was also responsible for clinical marketing programs and led the marketing and business development group. Before Cardinal, Foreman spent 12 years at Walmart and was a pharmacy regional manager for the retailer’s West Coast pharmacy division. He also held various positions at Glaxo Inc., Copper Country Apothecaries and Arbor Drugs.
Walgreens said Gleeson’s primary focus will be optimizing relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers. He previously spent 11 years with Merck (formerly Schering-Plough) as an executive leader in the global market access business unit. He was responsible for leading the payer marketing strategy for all core U.S. product franchises and managing the global diversified products business unit. Prior to his time at Merck, Gleeson was a senior consultant in the life sciences practice at KPMG Peat Marwick.
