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 begin 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 acquired to the corporate. Then, as CEO, Lynch made that imaginative and prescient her personal; in a 2021 Fortune profile, she advised me how her early experiences with the well being care system, together with caring for an aunt in hospice in her mid-20s and shedding her mom to suicide as a baby, influenced her dedication to that mission. As CEO, she acquired Medicare-focused major care community Oak Road 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 quilt of the journal, requested whether or not massive healthcare getting greater was good for the remainder of the U.S.

Stuart Isett—Fortune

Amid a difficult macro setting for insurers this yr—the U.S. authorities decreased funds for Medicare Benefit, for one—CVS began to flounder. It noticed a revolving door of executives. Its share value is down 20% to date this yr 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 may nonetheless bear fruit, Shawn writes, finally CVS determined it was out of time.

Lynch was changed by David Joyner, who most lately ran CVS’s Caremark pharmacy advantages enterprise; the corporate additionally named Roger Farah govt chair, which you’ll be able to learn extra about right here. After all, which means CVS has now misplaced its title as the most important Fortune 500 enterprise (No. 6 on that checklist) led by a feminine CEO.

That honor now goes again to Common Motors, led by this yr’s returning MPW checklist No. 1 Mary Barra. (Though GM is far 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 powerful 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
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

– Champs eventually. The New York Liberty gained their first WNBA championship in 28 seasons final night time, defeating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62. The ultimate served as a reminder of what investing in ladies’s sports activities can obtain, stated 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. remains to be making an attempt to maintain them out. Stella Li, the corporate’s No. 2, is govt vp and the face of its international growth, dealing with its relationship with Apple and different high-stakes tasks. Bloomberg

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

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

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

First Residents Financial institution named Michelle Draper CMO. Most lately, she was chief advertising and marketing and gross sales technique officer at Silicon Valley Financial institution.

Domino’s Pizza named Kate Trumbull govt vp, chief advertising and marketing officer. Most lately, 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. At present, she is the corporate’s senior director of human assets.

Masimo, a medical expertise firm, appointed Wendy Lane to its board of administrators. At present, 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 Women PR, a client public relations company cofounded by Mallory Blair.

ON MY RADAR

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After the Camp fireplace, 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 Put up

PARTING WORDS

“Motherhood is the ultimate battle for gender equality.”

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