Pessina plus one

10 October 2005

It s not just that Alliance s Stefano Pessina will be in charge of strategy, integration and acquisitions without reporting to the CEO. Pessina s girlfriend will run the wholesale division and sit on the board. No wonder the CEO doesn t like the jibe that he is only a COO.

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Ornella Barra, the longterm girlfriend of Stefano Pessina, will be the wholesale and commercial affairs director of Alliance Boots, the company being created from the merger of Alliance Unichem and Boots. Barra has been with Pessina, Alliance's leading shareholder, for 23 years. She will sit on the board of the merged company and report to Richard Baker, the Boots chief executive, who will hold the same role in the new group.

Barra founded her own pharmaceutical distribution company in 1984. She subsequently sold it to Alliance. She has been a director of Alliance since 1997.

Pessina will hold 15% of the shares of the combined Alliance Boots. He will be executive deputy chairman with a seat on the board, responsible for strategy, acquisitions and integration. He will report to the board.

Sir Nigel Rudd, Boot's current chairman, will hold the same post in the merged group.

The new board will have 13 members. Seven of these come from the Alliance Unichem camp; the remaining six come from Boots.

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