Walgreens announces retirement of two longtime executives

DEERFIELD, Ill. — John Spina, Walgreens corporate VP expense optimization, and Don Huonker, Walgreens chief operational risk officer, will retire from the company effective Oct. 31. "Both John and Don can be proud of the many contributions they have made over the years to help Walgreens achieve our goals, and we are grateful for their leadership. We thank them for their dedicated service and wish them the very best as they take the next steps in their lives," Walgreens released in a statement. 

 

Spina joined Walgreens in 1979 as a store clerk in Daly City, Calif., and moved into store management roles before becoming a district manager in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1996. In 2003, he joined the corporate offices as director of drug store administration and was promoted to store operations VP two years later. He was named VP and treasurer in 2007, VP retail integration and new format development in 2009, and VP Well Experience deployment in 2012 before taking his current position in July.  During the last five years, Spina has led several key initiatives, including the Duane Reade acquisition and integration, and was responsible for the deployment strategy and processes of the Well Experience initiative.  

 

Huonker began his Walgreens career in 1995 as a pharmacist and management trainee in St. Louis and worked in store leadership until joining the corporate office in 2001. He was named a VP store operations in 2003, overseeing four markets including Puerto Rico. In 2007, he was promoted to SVP pharmacy services and later was promoted to SVP healthcare innovation. In that role, Huonker was responsible for all pharmacy technology and developing new health information technology, and also served as board co-chair of Surescripts.

 

This was followed by SVP positions in process improvement, strategic sourcing and global projects. In April of this year, Huonker brought his broad operational leadership and global experience to his current role as chief operational risk officer to integrate the asset protection solutions team within community management.