Larry Merlo

Larry J. Merlo (born 1956) is the former president and CEO of CVS Health. Background Merlo grew up in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh, and graduated from Charleroi Area High School in 1973. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy in 1978. Career Merlo began his career at Peoples Drug, and joined CVS Pharmacy in 1990, when Peoples was acquired by CVS. He served as senior vice president of stores (January 1994 to March 1998), Executive Vice President – Stores (March 1998 to January 2007), executive vice president of CVS Caremark (January 2007 to May 2010), president of CVS Pharmacy (January 2007 to January 2010), and chief operating officer (May 2010 to March 2011). He was appointed chief executive officer in 2011. In 2014, after CVS refined its purpose of "helping people on their path to better health", Merlo announced that CVS would be the first major retail pharmacy to discontinue tobacco sales in all of its stores. He also announced that CVS would attempt to expand its line of “MinuteClinics,” which are walk-in health clinics, from 800 locations to 1,500 by 2017. In 2017, Merlo was also behind the decision that CVS would limit access to opioid painkillers.