Ornella Barra (born 20 December 1953) is an Italian-born Monegasque businesswoman. A qualified pharmacist, she is chief operating officer, international of

Walgreens Boots Alliance Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) is an American multinational holding company headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois. The company was formed on December 31, 2014, after Walgreens bought the 55% stake in Alliance Boots (owner of Boots UK L ...

. She is married to the Italian billionaire

Stefano Pessina Stefano Pessina (born 4 June 1941) is an Italian-Monegasque billionaire businessman; he is the executive chairman and largest single shareholder of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Early life Pessina was born in Pescara and grew up between Milan, Como ...

Biography

Ornella Barra was born on 20 December 1953 in

Chiavari Chiavari (; ) is a seaside comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, in Italy. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It has a beachside promenade and a marina and is situated near the river Entella (river), Entella. History Pre-Rom ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, northwest Italy,‘Biography’
ornellabarra.com into a family of entrepreneurs.Simon Bowers
‘Unichem's low-key Ornella Barra’
''The Guardian'', 5 August 2005. Ornella graduated as a pharmacist from the

University of Genoa The University of Genoa () is a public research university. It is one of the largest universities in Italy and it is located in the city of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguria region of northwestern Italy. The original university was fou ...

in 1979.

Career

After building up a regional pharmaceutical distribution company, Di Pharma, she sold the business to Alleanza Salute Italia (now Alliance Healthcare Italia), a firm founded and managed by Italian entrepreneur Stefano Pessina. He and Barra became partners both personally and professionally.Harry Wallo
‘Business profile: A recluse who keeps making the headlines’
''The Telegraph'', 31 March 2007. During this time, Barra also contributed to the creation of Alliance Santé, the Franco-Italian group with interests spanning Europe, and was made a board member in 1990. Following Alliance Santé's merger with UniChem in 1997, she became a board member and executive director of Alliance Unichem. Following the merger between Alliance UniChem and Boots plc and the creation of Alliance Boots, in 2012 she became the company's Chief Executive, Wholesale and Brands. Alliance Boots merged with Walgreens in 2014, to form Walgreens Boots Alliance, and integrated healthcare, pharmacy and retail leader based in Deerfield, Illinois. Barra is currently the company's chief operating officer, international. Barra is an honorary professor at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

's School of Pharmacy, where she lectures on the internationalisation of pharmacy business and issues of corporate social responsibility. Barra founded, and is an executive director of the European Pharmacists Forum. She is a member of the board of directors of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (IFPW), and became chairman in October 2014. She was president of Associazione Distributori Farmaceutici (ADF) (association of pharmaceutical distributors) from 2006 to 2009. She became an executive member of ECR Europe (Efficient Consumer Response) in 2007. Ornella Barra was ranked 5th in the 2015 "Fortune Most Powerful Women" in business among female executives in Europe, Middle East and Africa. From 2013 to 2019 Barra was a member of the board of directors of

Assicurazioni Generali Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. ( , ; meaning 'general insurances') or commonly known as Generali Group is an Italian insurance company based in Trieste. As of 2022, it is the largest insurance company in Italy and ranks among the world's largest i ...

. Barra is a member of the board of directors of

AmerisourceBergen Cencora, Inc., formerly known as AmerisourceBergen, is an American drug wholesale company and a contract research organization, that was formed by the merger of Bergen Brunswig and AmeriSource in 2001. It is one of the largest pharmaceutica ...

since January 2015.

Personal life

She is married to the Italian billionaire

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barra, Ornella 1953 births Living people People from Chiavari Italian expatriates in Monaco Italian pharmacists Italian businesspeople People associated with the University of Nottingham Walgreens people