Background
Said was born on 4 June in 1941. He was born in Italy.
Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice Chairman of Walgreens Boots Alliance
Said was born on 4 June in 1941. He was born in Italy.
Stefano graduated from Polytechnic University of Milan in nuclear engineering before starting his career in academia and later joining market research firm ACNielsen in Milan.
At the very begining Stefano Passina re-structured the family company and then acquired a number of other small pharmaceutical wholesale businesses to create Alleanza Farmaceutica in 1977 which later became Alleanza Salute Italia. In 1988, Stefano expanded his business into several Southern European countries through mergers, acquisitions and partnerships. The Alliance Sante Group was born in 1991 of these acquisitions and of an innovative merger with some French wholesalers.
In 1998, Alliance Sante merged with the UK business UniChem to form the Alliance UniChem Group, of which Stefano was CEO until 2004 before taking on the role of Executive Deputy Chairman. In just a few years he developed Alliance UniChem from a primarily pharmaceutical wholesaler with a presence in a few countries to a European leader with two core businesses pharmaceutical wholesale and retail pharmacy, in more than 12 countries. In 2006, Stefano organized the merger of Alliance UniChem Plc with Boots Group PLC to form Alliance Boots plc.
In 2012 Stefano took a crucial step forward towards achieving his vision of creating a global leader through the strategic partnership between Alliance Boots and Walgreens- the largest drug store chain in the US. This partnership which aims to create the first global pharmacy-led health and wellbeing enterprise marks a positive milestone for the healthcare industry as a whole. Stefano sits on the Board of Walgreens as its largest shareholder.
In March 2013, Alliance Boots and Walgreens together announced their innovative long-term partnership with AmerisourceBergen (one of North America’s largest pharmaceutical services companies). This relationship will enable the three companies to benefit from greater scale and global opportunities and work together on programs to improve service levels and effectiveness.
Today Alliance Boots is a leading international pharmacy-led health and beauty group offering a wide range of products and services to customers working in close partnership with manufacturers and pharmacists. It employs over 108 thousand people across over 25 countries and two core business activities (pharmacy-led health and beauty retailing and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution).
