Walgreens Boots Alliance appoints chief information officer

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) has appointed Neal Sample as its new executive vice president and chief information officer (CIO), effective immediately.

Sample will report to Tim Wentworth, chief executive officer (CEO) of WBA, as a member of the executive committee and serve on the IT governance committee.

He has been working alongside WBA technology leaders over the course of the last month to “assess and advance the company’s technology goals”.

Moving forward, he will lead the strategy for WBA’s IT function and the implementation of its technology and digital innovation, with an emphasis on “improving the digital experience for customers and patients”.

Sample brings more than 20 years of experience across “highly regulated” industries including healthcare, financial services and consumer internet, and has worked at start-ups and legacy Fortune 100 companies.

He currently serves as chairman of the board at Wellfield Technologies, Inc., as well as the chair of the board of trustees for the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, Missouri.

He was previously the CIO for Northwestern Mutual, where he rebuilt, optimised and centralised the technology function for the company.

Additionally, he served as a CEO and CIO of Express Scripts and also held several roles within the Enterprise Growth Business at American Express including EVP, chief marketing technologist, and CIO, before being named president.

Sample also held roles at eBay, Yahoo! Inc. and RightOrder, Inc.

Sample said: “WBA has a powerful vision to be the leading partner in reimagining local healthcare and wellbeing for all. I am eager and excited to continue working alongside an incredibly talented and dedicated team to advance technology and digital innovation at WBA toward our goal to be the independent partner of choice in pharmacy and healthcare services.”