CVS CEO Karen Lynch is fired, GM now prime female-led firm

Then, on Friday, Lynch misplaced her job in a shock ouster by CVS’s board. As my colleague Shawn Tully wrote for Fortune, her tenure “appeared to start out brilliantly, then unraveled quick.”

Lynch’s technique was to make CVS a “one-stop store” for healthcare. That transition began with CVS’s 2018 $68 billion acquisition of Aetna, which is how former Aetna president Lynch bought to the corporate. Then, as CEO, Lynch made that imaginative and prescient her personal; in a 2021 Fortune profile, she informed me how her early experiences with the well being care system, together with caring for an aunt in hospice in her mid-20s and dropping her mom to suicide as a toddler, influenced her dedication to that mission. As CEO, she acquired Medicare-focused major care community Oak Avenue Well being for $10.5 billion and residential well being care companies supplier Signify for $8 billion in 2023. The issue was that CVS overpaid for these corporations, placing strain by itself enterprise to ship. And a 2023 Fortune story, that put Lynch on the duvet of the journal, requested whether or not huge healthcare getting greater was good for the remainder of the U.S.

Stuart Isett—Fortune

Amid a difficult macro surroundings for insurers this 12 months—the U.S. authorities diminished funds for Medicare Benefit, for one—CVS began to flounder. It noticed a revolving door of executives. Its share worth is down 20% to date this 12 months and fell on the information of Lynch’s ouster. Learn Shawn’s story for rather more element on the enterprise and well being care trade challenges the corporate has confronted.

And whereas Lynch’s technique might nonetheless bear fruit, Shawn writes, finally CVS determined it was out of time.

Lynch was changed by David Joyner, who most not too long ago ran CVS’s Caremark pharmacy advantages enterprise; the corporate additionally named Roger Farah govt chair, which you’ll learn extra about right here. After all, meaning CVS has now misplaced its title as the biggest Fortune 500 enterprise (No. 6 on that record) led by a feminine CEO.

That honor now goes again to Normal Motors, led by this 12 months’s returning MPW record No. 1 Mary Barra. (Though GM is way smaller than CVS and ranked No. 19 on the Fortune 500—which implies the Fortune 500 simply barely has a feminine chief in its prime 20.)

Whereas Lynch’s run as CEO is over, her affect on rising feminine executives will endure. In the end, she fell prey to the robust requirements imposed on feminine CEOs: within the Fortune 500, they common 4.5 years of their jobs in comparison with male CEOs’ 7.2. (Lynch held the CEO title for 3 years and eight months.) However she nonetheless confirmed a era of feminine enterprise leaders how excessive they’ll climb.

Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]

The Most Highly effective Ladies Each day e-newsletter is Fortune’s day by day briefing for and concerning the ladies main the enterprise world. In the present day’s version was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe right here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

– Champs eventually. The New York Liberty received their first WNBA championship in 28 seasons final evening, defeating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62. The ultimate served as a reminder of what investing in ladies’s sports activities can obtain, mentioned workforce proprietor Clara Wu Tsai, who purchased the workforce when it performed at a suburban county heart. NBC

– It’s electrical. The Chinese language electrical vehicle-maker BYD is tackling rising EV markets—though the U.S. continues to be attempting to maintain them out. Stella Li, the corporate’s No. 2, is govt vice chairman and the face of its world growth, dealing with its relationship with Apple and different high-stakes obligations. Bloomberg

– Be ready (to pay extra). Lady Scouts is growing its dues for the primary time in eight years, upping ladies’ membership costs from $25 to $65 by 2027. The group brings in round $800 million annually from cookie gross sales, however projected $5 million in internet working losses for fiscal 2024. Wall Avenue Journal

– 10 years in. Founder Emily Weiss displays on 10 years of constructing Glossier on this piece. “It wasn’t at all times a clean path,” she writes, and she or he’s embraced a less-hectic and quieter position as govt chair since stepping down as CEO. British Vogue

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

First Residents Financial institution named Michelle Draper CMO. Most not too long ago, she was chief advertising and marketing and gross sales technique officer at Silicon Valley Financial institution.

Domino’s Pizza named Kate Trumbull govt vice chairman, chief advertising and marketing officer. Most not too long ago, she served as the corporate’s SVP and chief model officer.

Greycroft, a enterprise capital agency, appointed Alex Constantinople as a associate and chief advertising and marketing officer. Beforehand, she was CMO at Zendesk.

CoreWeave, an AI hyperscaler firm, appointed Michelle O’Rourke as chief individuals officer. Presently, she is the corporate’s senior director of human sources.

Masimo, a medical know-how firm, appointed Wendy Lane to its board of administrators. Presently, Lane is chair of Lane Holdings, director of Verisk Analytics, director of YourBio Well being, and director of CAC Holdings.

Orchestra, a communications firm, acquired Small Ladies PR, a shopper public relations company cofounded by Mallory Blair.

ON MY RADAR

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After the Camp hearth, PG&E’s CEO is targeted on security and tradition to rebuild the general public’s belief Fortune

What do ladies dream about? This 95-year-old researcher discovered some clues Washington Submit

PARTING WORDS

“Motherhood is the ultimate struggle for gender equality.”

— Reshma Saujani, founding father of Mothers First and Ladies Who Code, on the motherhood penalty