Rosalind Brewer has been the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance since March 2021. She is one of just two Black women leading a Fortune 500 company, along with Thasunda Duckett, who heads investment and retirement giant TIAA. Brewer is also distinguished as the first Black woman to serve as group president and COO of Starbucks and CEO of Sam's Club. In 2019, she also became the only Black woman to sit on Amazon's board.
Brewer understands that working as a Black female CEO in an elite group is truly rare.
In an interview with Harvard Business Review, she said, “Many times I am called upon and asked to give my opinion on diversity issues, and I will be honest with you: I am as frank as I possibly can be, because I do think I hold a unique position. When I get in these settings I take advantage of an opportunity to learn and educate those around me, because I can feel it when they’re unfamiliar with me or my culture. I don’t hide my culture. I talk about it very openly.”
Brewer was born in 1962 in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of assembly line workers at GM. She and her siblings were the first generation in her family to attend college. Gravitating toward math and science, she was initially interested in pursuing a career as a physician. She attended the historically Black Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia where she completed her Bachelor of Science in chemistry. Having had a change of heart about pursuing a career in medicine, she began working at Kimberly-Clark as a research technician.
Brewer then completed the Director’s College program for executive education at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Stanford Law School, as well as the Advanced Management Program at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to holding executive positions at Kimberly-Clark, Walmart, Sam's Club, Starbucks, and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Brewer also served as a member on the Board of Directors at Lockheed Martin and Molson Coors Brewing Company. Currently she serves as a member on the Board of Trustees for Westminster School, the Board of Councilors for the Carter Presidential Center, and the Board of Trustees Chair at Spelman College.