I can understand the idea behind a change of leadership in a business unit that failing right now. However instead of putting a new president in charge of Aetna, she essentially just put herself in charge. (and the CFO too, but KL said she'll be taking over day to day operations of Aetna) This now puts her on the hot seat. Because if things at Aetna don't improve she'll have no one to blame but herself. As the former president of Aetna, she must be pretty confident that she can turn the ship around, because why else would she put herself in a very vulnerable position? Unusual for a CEO to put themselves on the line like this. Thoughts?
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or they spin off Aetna and let KL be the CEO of that then let Prem be CEO of CVS Health
Or they go with an interim CEO like Prem, until they find a more permanent CEO. Although to be frank, the entirety of CVS senior leadership needs to be completely overhauled. The problem is that whoever takes over is just gonna be another wall st numbers crunching CEO. Sadly, I'm afraid the days companies of having CEO's who knew their business and were in touch with the ground floor are over.
Anyone think the BoD already has options for a CEO successor picked out and waiting to see who wins the election to make the pick based on who is more compatible with the winning party? Maybe Karen permanently assumes the stepped back role after that or if she fails to fix the problems she’s gone completely? The hard part isn’t firing the CEO… it’s naming the next person that you need to rally confidence around going forward… seems like it might be better to just wait a few more months…
She didn't put herself in the "hot seat", the BOD did.
I wish she'd stop giving herself credit for what mark bertolini did at aetna. She has little command of how the business works and even less ability to fix it.
really tho, there were not a lot of layers between KL and BK, he was directly reporting to her, so what was she doing before this? Was she overseeing businesses plans and strategies, making sure BK was making the correct moves, or was she hands off, out writing books, doing puff piece interviews and playing with the biden/harris team a little too much? Methinks it was the 2nd thing if she feels the need to so dramatically rededicate herself to Aetna to please the board, or wallst.
Lol, she’s trying to get fired. She’ll get millions in payments as part of her deal and will likely get hired by some other brain dead operation. Or just take her millions and retire, all the while leaving a burning fire behind her.
@1mpn+1tY7dmei Interesting assessment. Well if that's the case then I give her until Q1 2025 and then if things are still not looking good then she's out.
Or the BoD required it and just allowed her to communicate the changes as if they were her own, thus it’s the BoD issuing a behind the scenes ultimatum. Fix or be removed this time next year.
Based on Karen’s comments at the Aetna town hall, the Aetna business will be in better shape by next year with the increase in Medicare star payments and higher Medicare Advantage plan premiums. Karen talked about an “us” (Aetna) versus “them” (CVS) mentality at Aetna. It sounds like Brian Kane, Les Cater and Meghan Hanson were running Aetna as a stand alone company instead of as part of CVS. I look at it as an opportunity for Karen to replace Brian, Les and Meghan because they not team players and Aetna was going to turn around in 2025 if those three were running the company or not.