CVS CEO Karen Lynch is fired, GM now top female-led company

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 obtained 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 dropping her mom to suicide as a baby, 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.

Amid a difficult macro setting for insurers this 12 months—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 this point this 12 months and fell on the information of Lynch’s ouster. Learn Shawn’s story for way more element on the enterprise and well being care business challenges the corporate has confronted.

And whereas Lynch’s technique might nonetheless bear fruit, Shawn writes, in the end 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 be able to learn extra about right here. In fact, which means 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 suggests the Fortune 500 simply barely has a feminine chief in its high 20.)

Whereas Lynch’s run as CEO is over, her influence on rising feminine executives will endure. Finally, 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 will climb.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

– Champs ultimately. 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, stated staff proprietor Clara Wu Tsai, who purchased the staff 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 vp and the face of its world growth, dealing with its relationship with Apple and different high-stakes duties. Bloomberg

– Be ready (to pay extra). Woman Scouts is growing 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 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 all the time a easy 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 gross sales technique officer at Silicon Valley Financial institution.

Domino’s Pizza named Kate Trumbull govt vp, chief advertising 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 accomplice and chief advertising officer. Beforehand, she was CMO at Zendesk.

CoreWeave, an AI hyperscaler firm, appointed Michelle O’Rourke as chief folks 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 hearth, PG&E’s CEO is concentrated 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 combat for gender equality.”

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

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