Walgreens Grants Billionaire Interim CEO $7 Million Stock Award
(Bloomberg) — Stefano Pessina, the interim chief executive officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., received a $7 million restricted stock award as the company searches for his replacement.
The Deerfield, Illinois-based drugstore chain also gave $5 million in restricted shares to Executive Chairman James Skinner. Both grants are set to vest in three years, subject to achieving certain performance goals that weren’t disclosed, according to a regulatory filing dated Jan. 14. The awards could vest faster if the executives leave the board of directors under certain circumstances, the filing shows.
Pessina, 73, became acting CEO after Walgreen Co. acquired Bern, Switzerland-based Alliance Boots GmbH for about $14 billion on Dec. 31. He succeeded Greg Wasson, 56, who ran Walgreen since 2009 and retired when the deal was completed.
Pessina has a net worth of $12.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He’ll run Walgreens Boots until it finds a permanent CEO, according to the filing.
Michael Polzin, a spokesman for Walgreens, said he couldn’t immediately comment.
–With assistance from Brandon Kochkodin in New York.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anders Melin in New York at amelin3@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Newcomb at pnewcomb2@bloomberg.net Laura Marcinek, Alexis Leondis
