Ex-McDonald’s CEO named Walgreen chair
EMILY MORRIS emorris@suntimes.com July 12, 2012 7:22PM
Former McDonald's Corporation CEO Jim Skinner. | AP
Updated: August 14, 2012 6:26AM
DEERFIELD — Walgreen Co. announced Thursday that it hired recently retired McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner to serve as its new non-executive chairman.
Skinner, a current Walgreen board member, replaces Al McNally, who had been chairman since 2009 and will remain on the board.
“As Walgreens moves forward with its strategy to become a U.S. and world leader in pharmacy-led health and well being, Jim Skinner’s long experience on the Walgreens board, and decades of global success with McDonald’s in expanding to Europe and emerging markets, make him an exceptional choice to lead our board into the future on behalf of shareholders and stakeholders,” said Bill Foote, Walgreen board director and chairman of the nominating and governance committee.
The announcement comes on the heels of the Deerfield-based company’s decision to acquire $438 million worth of mid-South based stores from Stephen L. LaFrance Holdings Inc., based in Arkansas, and about a month after it bought a $6.7 billion stake in the United Kingdom’s largest drugstore chain, Alliance Boots.
“Jim Skinner’s long and successful record in retail and customer experience, both across the nation and around the world, will be enormously helpful at a time when Walgreens is launching with Alliance Boots the first global pharmacy-led health and wellbeing enterprise,” Walgreen President and CEO Greg Wasson said.
Skinner, who had been CEO of McDonald’s since 2004, retired from the company in June and was replaced by Donald Thompson. Skinner is also on the board of Illinois Tool Works, Inc.
