Appoints New Board Member and CIO with Deep IT Experience in Healthcare and Retail, and Varieties Finance and Expertise Committee on Board
DEERFIELD, Ailing. – Sept. 8, 2022 – Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (Nasdaq: WBA) at this time introduced that it’s additional strengthening its management to supply distinctive experiences and companies for sufferers and clients, with world-class know-how and innovation because the spine.
WBA has appointed Inderpal Bhandari to its board of administrators and Hsiao Wang as senior vp and chief info officer (CIO), bringing deep know-how experience within the healthcare and retail sectors. The corporate’s board of administrators has additionally shaped a finance and know-how committee to present even higher focus to this essential perform.
“We’re making great progress on our strategic priorities, together with reworking and aligning our core enterprise and constructing our subsequent development engine with consumer-centric healthcare options. With at this time’s bulletins, we’re getting into our subsequent part of execution and elevating our capabilities even additional,” stated Roz Brewer, CEO, WBA.
“We wish to welcome Inderpal to our board and Hsiao to our Govt Management Group. They’re each extremely proficient leaders and technologists. Along with our board’s new finance and know-how committee, they are going to be instrumental to reaching our objectives and really differentiating Walgreens Boots Alliance in how we ship the healthcare of the longer term.”
Inderpal Bhandari Joins WBA Board
Inderpal Bhandari has served as IBM’s world chief knowledge officer since 2015. On this place, Bhandari is accountable for the corporate’s knowledge technique, which is essential to IBM’s hybrid cloud and AI management. His core experience is in reworking knowledge into enterprise worth and enhancing buyer experiences by delivering strategic and modern capabilities that use analytic insights to allow development and productiveness.
Over Bhandari’s four-decade profession, he has developed an intensive IT background, significantly within the healthcare sector, in roles similar to chief knowledge officer at Cambia Well being Options, Specific Scripts and Medco Well being Options. Bhandari holds three superior levels: a Physician of Philosophy in Laptop Engineering from Carnegie Mellon College, Grasp of Science in Laptop Engineering from College of Massachusetts Amherst and a Bachelor of Expertise in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Birla Institute of Expertise and Science, Pilani.
He was named U.S. Chief Knowledge Officer of the Yr by the CDO Membership in 2017 and one among Corinium’s Prime 100 Innovators in Knowledge and Analytics in 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2020, he was additionally appointed as one of many World Prime 100 Knowledge Visionaries by Truata.
“I’m thrilled to be becoming a member of the board of administrators of Walgreens Boots Alliance at an extremely thrilling time in its historical past. I imagine WBA is uniquely positioned to supply technology-enabled healthcare options, which can in the end assist tens of millions of individuals deal with their well being. Nothing might be extra necessary than that and I’m excited to work with this high-caliber and proficient workforce to deal with among the most difficult healthcare problems with at this time,” stated Bhandari.
Board Varieties Finance and Expertise Committee
Efficient instantly, the finance committee of Walgreens Boots Alliance’s Board of Administrators has been reconstituted because the finance and know-how committee, reflecting the significance and significance of know-how to reaching the corporate’s objectives. As WBA accelerates its healthcare platform and world infrastructure, the committee will govern the strategic development of its know-how, together with main buyer initiatives, rising improvements and important tendencies.
Hsiao Wang Appointed CIO
Hsiao Wang will assume his new function on Sept. 26, and report back to Brewer as a member of the Govt Management Group. He’ll lead the technique for WBA’s IT perform and the implementation of its know-how and digital innovation. He’ll deal with advancing WBA’s know-how platform to ship on the corporate’s strategic priorities, with an emphasis on its digital expertise for patrons and sufferers, together with technology-enabled healthcare options for Walgreens and Walgreens Well being.
Wang is an MIT-educated IT skilled who specializes within the retail sector. He joins WBA from The Michaels Firm the place, as government vp and CIO, he oversaw product improvement, engineering and operations for all know-how features. Previous to that, he spent 16 years at Walmart in an array of roles with rising management duty in know-how and IT, culminating in his function as senior vp and chief know-how officer for Sam’s Membership.
At Sam’s Membership, he established synthetic intelligence, robotics, picture and speech recognition and cellular capabilities. He was instrumental in growing the way forward for automation, used AI and deep studying to speed up operations to profit the shopper expertise and decreased the typical know-how product improvement time from 12-18 months to 4 weeks.
Wang is a passionate advocate for the technology-driven shopper expertise, and has deep expertise in innovating and constructing robust, high-performing groups. He earned his Bachelor of Science diploma in Electrical Engineering and Laptop Science from Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT).
“Becoming a member of an organization with such robust shopper belief and a transparent imaginative and prescient to be the main companion in reimagining native healthcare and wellbeing for all is an amazing alternative. I’m excited to work with an impressive workforce to guide the continued transformation of know-how and digital innovation at WBA, in addition to unlock and create consumer-centric healthcare options,” stated Wang.
Wang succeeds Francesco Tinto, senior vp and CIO, WBA. Tinto’s many accomplishments throughout his three years on the firm embody expediting its digital modernization by shifting to the Cloud, deploying SAP S/4 throughout all Walgreens shops and laying the inspiration for a world-class digital expertise and buyer insights platform by means of expanded partnerships with Microsoft and Adobe.
“We’re very grateful to Francesco for accelerating our digital transformation, which has been integral to our firm’s success. In some ways, he and his workforce have laid the groundwork that can allow our firm to excel even additional sooner or later,” stated Brewer.
About Walgreens Boots Alliance
Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) is an built-in healthcare, pharmacy and retail chief serving tens of millions of consumers and sufferers day-after-day, with a 170-year heritage of caring for communities.
A trusted, world innovator in retail pharmacy with roughly 13,000 places throughout the U.S., Europe and Latin America, WBA performs a essential function within the healthcare ecosystem. The corporate is reimagining native healthcare and well-being for all as a part of its objective – to create extra joyful lives by means of higher well being. By way of shelling out medicines, enhancing entry to a variety of well being companies, offering prime quality well being and wonder merchandise, and providing anytime, anyplace comfort throughout its digital platforms, WBA is shaping the way forward for healthcare.
WBA has greater than 315,000 workforce members and a presence in 9 nations by means of its portfolio of shopper manufacturers: Walgreens, Boots, Duane Reade, the No7 Magnificence Firm, Benavides in Mexico and Ahumada in Chile. Moreover, WBA has a portfolio of healthcare-focused investments positioned in a number of nations, together with China and the U.S.
The corporate is happy with its contributions to wholesome communities, a wholesome planet, an inclusive office and a sustainable market. WBA has been acknowledged for its dedication to working sustainably: it’s an index element of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and was named to the 100 Finest Company Residents 2021.
Extra firm info is accessible at www.walgreensbootsalliance.com.
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Supply: Walgreens Boots Alliance
