CVS Health Corp. is shaking up its management ranks as newly installed Chief Executive Officer David Joyner tries to put his stamp on the health-care conglomerate.
Thomas Cowhey, the current CFO, will step down from his role and become an adviser to Joyner, the company said on Tuesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. He will be succeeded by former United Parcel Service Inc. CFO Brian Newman, effective April 21.
“We see Brian Newman’s large public company experience as helpful to address the complexity of CVS’s broad enterprise, which also includes deep finance teams within each individual business,” analysts from Leerink Partners wrote in a note to clients.
CVS also named Amy Compton-Phillips the company’s new executive vice president and chief medical officer, who will take the role on May 19.
CVS’s shares rose as much as 12 percent after the market opened in New York on Tuesday, helped by a surprise boost in government payments for Medicare Advantage plans announced Monday evening.
CVS has faced financial challenges in recent years, particularly in its Aetna insurance unit, which attracted the attention of activist investor Glenview Capital Management. In October, CVS chose as CEO Joyner, a longtime company veteran who quickly appointed new leadership in the insurance business. The company’s fourth-quarter earnings last year impressed investors, sending the stock up the most in more than 25 years.
The health-care conglomerate, which reaffirmed on Tuesday its previously issued full-year guidance for 2025, also runs a large retail pharmacy and a pharmacy benefits manager. CVS has been beset by rising medical costs industrywide in addition to facing company-specific challenges.
The insurance business suffered after underestimating medical costs and the government cut quality ratings for some plans, depressing payments, challenges CVS has been fixing. The company’s pharmacy division, along with the rest of the industry, has also faced increasing financial pressure from falling payments for drugs and competition for front-of-store products from online sellers and big box retailers.
Cowhey has been CFO since January 2024, and held the position on an interim basis starting in October 2023, when the previous CFO, Shawn Guertin, took a leave of absence for family health reasons.
CVS seeks dismissal of DOJ opioid lawsuit, citing lack of evidenceCVS lays off 183 employees, mostly remote workers, based out of its Wellesley office A new CVS app allows some customers to access products in locked cabinets
