It is time.
After almost 40 years with Walgreens I have decided to move on to the second chapter. I have learned so much about how important it is to surround yourself with people smarter and more talented than yourself and I have been VERY LUCKY to have worked with so many of those people (Zins Barry, Steve Pashko, Chris Carr, Rich Pottorf, Lee Webb, Jim Walker, Mark Wagner, Kevin Walgreens, Kevin Schmidt, Mark Obuhanych, JUNAID CHOWDHURY, Skip Bourdo, Jeffrey Koziel, Angie Butler, Andy Morris, Perry Han, Rex Swords and on and on...).
I am lucky to have been in the right place at the right time for key players that have allowed me to be part of the Walgreens journey of explosive growth and transformations throughout the years. When I started with the company one of my first assignments was to remove the Sweda cash registers so we could convert to electronic registers. We had Red Line/Blue Line, pricing tables in the stockroom, and most stores walked their bank deposits to the bank. That is how I was so fortunate to have met the angel in my life. She was a bank teller at the end of the strip center. On 9/21/23 we will celebrate 38 years of marriage. That is a lot to say after 10 different stores and 19 years as a store leader, 6 years traveling and opening stores in Upstate New York as a DM, 2 years traveling every Monday-Friday to rollout Frontier, and 12 years as a Regional Vice President (4 different Regions). This entailed 11 physical moves with Walgreens.
One thing for sure, most of the years, Walgreens always made decisions that fit the Four Way Test when it came to people and the business. As it has been said millions of times, "the one thing for certain is there will be change." Things change and people change.
I joined Walgreens right after Charles R. Walgreens II set a strategy to divest businesses and focus on Drug Retail. I don't know how hard the transformation was for those that were impacted. I can only imagine it was similar to now.
As I transition to my second chapter I have definitely started to slow down and appreciate sunsets, sunrises, mountains, and the beauty of what I have. Thank you to every single person that helped me get to this point. Each of you that helped me learn how to be a leader had a level of passion and knowledge that inspired me in a way you will never understand.
I am proud of what I accomplished and hope I have had an impact on Walgreens, but more importantly, the people that make up the company! I hope to take my experiences, stories and "crayon and napkin" mindset to a company and help them in growth, transition and change.
Area Manager of Hospital Operations | Supporting: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, & Michigan
2yIt’s so exciting to see the great work you are doing. Keep it up! #everydayheroes