Gregory Wasson
President & CEO
Walgreen Co.
Gregory D. Wasson is president and chief executive officer of Walgreen Co. and has served on the company’s board of directors since 2009.
Wasson joined Walgreens as a pharmacy intern in 1980 while a student at Purdue University’s School of Pharmacy in West Lafayette, Ind. After earning his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1981, he managed several Houston Walgreens drugstores before being promoted to district manager in 1986. He was promoted to a regional vice president of Walgreens store operations in 1999.
In 2001, he was named a Walgreens vice president and executive vice president of Walgreens Health Initiatives, the company’s pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). Wasson was promoted to president of Walgreens Health Initiatives in 2002 and named a Walgreens senior vice president in 2004 and a Walgreens executive vice president in 2005. He became president and chief operating officer of Walgreens in 2007 and was appointed CEO in February 2009.
Wasson is a member of the board of directors of Alliance Boots GmbH, the leading international pharmacy-led health and beauty group in which Walgreens holds a 45 percent equity stake. He is also a member of the board of directors of AmerisourceBergen, a global pharmaceutical sourcing and distribution services company that Walgreens and Alliance Boots GmbH entered into a strategic long-term relationship with in March 2013. He also serves on the board of directors of Verizon Communications Inc., the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the Healthcare Leadership Council, the Consumer Goods Forum, World Business Chicago, The Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Midtown Educational Foundation, as well as being a member of the British-American Business Council International Advisory Board. He is a member of The Economic Club of Chicago, The Business Council, The Wall Street Journal CEO Council and the civic committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. He serves as a member of the Illinois chapter of the American Cancer Society’s CEOs Against Cancer and co-chaired the society’s 2014 Discovery Ball.