Rosalind Brewer
Rosalind Brewer is a prominent business executive known for her trailblazing roles in corporate leadership, particularly as the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance and previously as the president and CEO of Sam's Club. Born in 1962 in Detroit, Michigan, she was the youngest of five children and the first in her family to attend college, earning a degree in chemistry from Spelman College. Brewer began her career at Kimberly-Clark, where she spent over two decades and rose through various roles in marketing and sales, eventually becoming president of the global nonwovens sector.
In 2006, Brewer transitioned to Walmart, where she held several significant positions, culminating in her appointment as CEO of Sam's Club in 2012, making her the first woman and first African American to lead a Walmart company. During her tenure, she focused on increasing revenue and improving e-commerce offerings. After leaving Walmart in 2017, she joined Starbucks as COO, emphasizing racial equity initiatives, before becoming the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2021. Brewer's leadership has earned her numerous accolades, recognizing her as one of the most powerful women in business, and she is noted for her impact on fostering growth and innovation in the companies she has led.
Rosalind Brewer
CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, former COO of Starbucks, former president and CEO of Sam’s Club
- Born: 1962
- Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan
Education: Spelman College; Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Background
Rosalind Gates Brewer was born Rosalind Gates in 1962, the same year that Walmart founder Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest of five children of George and Sally Gates. Brewer enjoyed studying math and science, and with the encouragement of her parents, she initially planned to become a physician. However, she soon realized that a medical career was not for her due to her squeamishness.
Brewer and her siblings were the first generation of their family to attend college. Brewer attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, the country’s oldest historically Black college for women, where she was active in student government. She earned her bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1984. Brewer later attended a program in advanced management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and graduated from the Directors’ Consortium, a professional program for corporate board members that features instruction from faculty at Stanford Law School and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
After graduating from Spelman, Brewer began her career as an organic chemist in the Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s product development office near Atlanta. Founded in 1872 as Kimberly, Clark and Company, the company produces a wide variety of consumer products, specializing in personal-care products and managing such brands as Scott, Huggies, Kotex, Depend, and Kleenex, as well as creating products for the medical and professional sectors.
Although her work in research and development allowed her to make use of her degree in chemistry, Brewer found herself becoming more interested in the business side of the company’s operations, and she soon transitioned to a new position. Over the course of her twenty-two years with the company, Brewer worked in a variety of positions in such areas as marketing and sales. As vice president of the company’s nonwoven fabrics business, she succeeded in increasing her division’s sales by more than 30 percent. In 2004, she became president of Kimberly-Clark’s global nonwovens sector, in which capacity she was responsible for overseeing the manufacturing and development of various consumer products.
Career as an Executive
Feeling that she had achieved as much professional growth as she could at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Brewer decided to make a major career transition. In 2006, she joined Walmart Stores as the regional vice president, overseeing operations in the state of Georgia, a role she held until being promoted to president of the company’s southeast division. She was later appointed president of Walmart East, overseeing more than fifteen hundred stores throughout the eastern United States and Puerto Rico.
In January 2012, Walmart announced that Brian Cornell, the chief executive officer (CEO) and president of the company’s Sam’s Club chain of warehouse stores, was stepping down from his position. Brewer succeeded Cornell as Sam’s Club president and CEO on February 1, 2012. She was the first woman and the first African American to serve as the CEO of a Walmart company.
Sam’s Club presented Brewer with a unique set of challenges. Unlike the company’s main Walmart stores, Sam’s Club stores are open only to members and primarily sell products in bulk to consumers and small businesses. As CEO, Brewer sought to increase sales and grow the company with the ultimate goal of doubling Sam’s Club’s revenue. To do so, she oversaw the opening of new stores throughout the United States and the introduction of new merchandise. She also worked to improve the company’s e-commerce offerings and to foster a productive relationship between Sam’s Club and American microbusinesses, which are small businesses with fewer than five employees, nearly half of which are owned and operated by women. In May 2014, Brewer announced that Sam’s Club was awarding $2.5 million in grants to nonprofit organizations that provide educational and financial assistance to female entrepreneurs and small-business owners.
In addition to her work with Sam’s Club, Brewer began serving as the chair of Spelman College’s board of trustees in mid-2011. She also served on the board of directors of the technology company Lockheed Martin, the board of councilors of the Carter Center, and the board of trustees for Atlanta’s Westminster Schools.
Brewer left Sam's Club and Walmart in 2017. Later that year, she was nominated for the Starbucks board of directors before being named COO of the company. With Starbucks, Brewer focused on implementing policy changes targeting racism, including instituting racial bias training for all employees. As COO, Brewer was the head of operations in the US, Central and South America, and Canada.
Brewer became the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance in March 2021. Upon her appointment to the position, Brewer became the only Black woman to hold the position of CEO of a Standard and Poors (S&P) 500 company. She stepped down from this position in 2023 somewhat suddenly. The company's stock declined by forty-seven percent during her short two year tenure.
Brewer also served as a member of the board of directors at Amazon between 2019 and 2021.
Impact
In her role as president and CEO of Sam’s Club, Brewer was credited with fostering significant growth and encouraging innovation within the company. She has been honored as one of the most powerful women in business by Forbes, Fortune, Working Mother, and Black Enterprise, among other publications. In recognition of her work, Brewer was awarded the Legacy of Leadership Award at the Spelman College Women of Color Conference.
Bibliography
Alderman, Mille. "From Chemist to CEO, Rosalind Brewer Knows a Thing or Two about Hard Work." AY. AY Magazine, Sept. 2012. Web. 23 July 2014.
Bahn, Chris. "Rosalind Brewer: Rising Star in Wal-Mart." Arkansas Business. Arkansas Business, 25 Feb. 2013. Web. 23 July 2014.
Brewer, Rosalind. "New Board Chair Rosalind Brewer, C’84, Shares Her Vision." Interview by Lorraine Robertson. Inside Spelman. Spelman Coll., 1 Sept. 2011. Web. 23 July 2014.
Brown, Carolyn M. "Rosalind Brewer Makes History as Sam’s Club CEO." Black Enterprise. Black Enterprise, 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 25 June 2014.
McGrath, Maggie. "Breaking the 'Concrete' Ceiling: Roz Brewer to Become the S&P 500's Only Black Female CEO." Forbes, 28 Jan. 2021, www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2021/01/28/breaking-the-concrete-ceiling-roz-brewer-to-be-the-sps-only-black-female-ceo/. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.
"Rosalind Brewer, Named First Woman, African-American, CEO of Sam’s Club." Huffington Post. The HuffingtonPost.com, 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 23 July 2014.
"Walgreens CEO Brewer Abruptly Steps Down After Less than Three Years in Role." Reuters, 1 Sept. 2023, www.reuters.com/business/walgreens-ceo-rosalind-brewer-steps-down-2023-09-01/. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.