Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1393415
52 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP POPULATION HEALTH The chief sustainability officer role is on the rise: 5 notes By Kelly Gooch U .S. Fortune 500 companies have increasingly hired chief sustainability officers in the last decade, with numbers of CSOs at publicly traded companies rising 228 percent, from 29 in 2011 to 95 as of March, according to a report from CSO recruitment firm the Weinreb Group. "By the numbers and issues, it is clear that the CSO role is having its moment. ese are the people defining a vision of a sustainable future, developing strategies and targets to meet that vision and leading business to make progress on the crises of 2020 — and the social and environmental challenges yet to come," said Ellen Weinreb, founder and CEO of the Weinreb Group. e firm's report is based on searches on LinkedIn, Goo- gle and Google News, as well as survey responses from 33 of the 95 identified CSOs during the first three months of this year. Five notes about the trend, according to the report: 1. irty-one of the 95 CSOs today were hired last year as their company's inaugural CSO. 2. Women make up 54 percent of CSO positions today, up from 45 percent in 2018 and 28 percent in 2011. 3. Today's CSOs include roles at CVS Health (hired in 2013), Johnson & Johnson (hired in 2021) and Pfizer (hired in 2020). 4. Of the CSOs surveyed this year, 48 percent have the standalone CSO title, 49 percent have two titles and 3 per- cent have three titles. 5. A decade ago, 35 percent of CSOs said they report di- rectly to the CEO, compared to only 21 percent of CSOs who reported this in 2021. e American Hospital Association acknowledged that the chief sustainability officer role is growing and said health systems are adding roles for environmental stewardship. Still, "we haven't seen the CSO role in hospitals yet — instead they tend to be 'director' titles. In a lot of cases, hospitals are keeping sustainability under the facilities management umbrella. But we do think that is going to be changing in the future," the association told Becker's. n Penn State Health names COO By Kelly Gooch D eborah Addo has been named executive vice president and COO of Penn State Health, the Hershey, Pa.-based health system said June 7. Ms. Addo is president of Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg, Va. She also was executive leader of Inova Mount Vernon Hos- pital in Alexandria, Va., for nearly three years. Effective in August, she will join Penn State Health, succeeding Alan Brechbill, who retired last year. n Meet the 4 women in healthcare on Forbes' 50 over 50 list By Hannah Mitchell S elected from a pool of 10,000 nominees, these four women are among the most inspiring, innovative and bold leaders nationwide, according to a 2021 Forbes ranking. Four women to know: Katalin Karikó, PhD. Age 66. Biochemist and Senior Vice President of BioNTech. Dr. Kariko came to the U.S. from Hun- gary with her family in 1985 with about $1,200 stuffed in a teddy bear for safekeeping. Her research in mRNA helped Pfizer and Moderna develop their COVID-19 vaccines. Rosalind Brewer. Age 58. CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance. The daughter of assembly line workers at General Motors, Ms. Brewer became the only Black woman to run an S&P 500 com- pany when she was appointed CEO of Walgreens Boots Alli- ance in 2021. In 2019, she was the only Black woman to sit on Amazon's board. As the former COO of Starbucks, Ms. Brewer implemented policy changes and racial bias training in more than 8,000 stores. Karen Lynch. Age 58. President and CEO of CVS Health. Ms. Lynch began her career as a certified public accountant before developing a taste for the business side. She joined CVS as its executive vice president right when it was finishing up its $70 billion acquisition of Aetna in 2018. During the pandemic, Ms. Lynch led CVS' COVID-19 response and managed the largest number of independently run testing sites nationwide. She was appointed CEO of the company in February 2021. Gail McGovern. Age 69. CEO of the American Red Cross. When Ms. McGovern was selected as the CEO of the Red Cross in 2008, its reputation and finances needed rescuing. She con- solidated resources of its 720 chapters, cut costs and increased efficiency. Ms. McGovern oversees 9,000 staff members and 300,000 volunteers, who respond to 60,000 disasters per year. The Red Cross holds 40 percent of the nation's blood supply. n