J. Randolph "Randy" Lewis (born ) is an American businessman, a

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, s ...

employment advocate,"Disability Inclusion: One Idea, Big Opportunity"

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, a ...

. Retrieved March 27, 2014. and author.Lewis, Randy (2014)
''No Greatness Without Goodness: How a Father's Love Changed a Company and Sparked a Movement''

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Tyndale House is a Christian publisher in Carol Stream, Illinois. History Tyndale was founded in 1962 by Kenneth N. Taylor in order to publish his paraphrase of the Epistles, which he had composed while commuting to work at Moody Press in ...

. Lewis is a former senior vice president of a

Fortune 50 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...

company, and board member of a national restaurant chain."Wendy's Board of Directors"
Retrieved March 27, 2014. He was the head of

supply chain In commerce, a supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products to customers through a distribution system. It refers to the network of organizations, people, activ ...

and

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

for 17 years until his retirement in 2013."Building a Better World: Randy Lewis"

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Delo ...

. Retrieved March 27, 2014. Over his last ten years there, he created a program in its distribution centers to integrate large numbers of people with disabilities as equals into its workforce.

Early life and education

Lewis was born in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

''circa'' 1950. He earned his Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in accounting in 1971, a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...

in 1974, and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accou ...

degree in finance in 1975, all from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, located in Austin, Texas.Parks, Liz (October 16, 2000)
"Optimizing Efficiency to Maximize Potential"
''

Drug Store News A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalati ...

''. Vol. 22 No. 15. Lewis joined the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John ...

and was stationed in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

Career

Ernst & Young

Lewis was a

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

-based partner at

and Walgreens was his client by the late 1980s. His primary client in 1992, Walgreens offered him a position.

Walgreens

Lewis joined Walgreens in 1992 as divisional vice president, logistics and planning and promoted to vice president to head its supply chain in 1996. He was promoted to senior vice president in 1999. During his time there, Walgreens expanded from 1,500 to 8,000 stores. When he took over in 1996, Walgreens began to contract outside agencies that employed people with disabilities in its distribution centers on a limited basis, typically in non-production areas.Wilson, Marianne (July 2006.
"Walgreens Leads the Way: Disabled Employees to Comprise One-Third of Work Force in Chain's New DCs"
'' Chain Store Age''.

List of other companies who have implemented this program

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

* C. & J. Clark (traded as Clarks) *

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

Meijer Meijer Inc. (, ; stylized as meijer) is an American supercenter chain that primarily operates throughout the Midwest. Its corporate headquarters are in Walker, Michigan, which is a part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. Founded in 1934 ...

OfficeMax OfficeMax is an American office supplies retailer founded in 1988. It is now a subsidiary of The ODP Corporation, which is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. As of December 2012, OfficeMax operated 941 stores in 47 states, Puerto Rico, the U. ...

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began ...

Personal life

His son, Austin, has

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

which may have led Lewis to note the importance of employment for those with disabilities.

Recognition

Brain & Behavior Research Foundation The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that funds mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It l ...

(then NARSAD) first Productive Lives Award – 2009 * Milton P. Levy, Jr. Outstanding Volunteer Award Winner (Special Care & Career Services) – 2010 * Walgreens recognized as Private-Sector Employer of the Year for People with Disabilities – 2010 * Leader of the Year –

Human Resources Management Association of Chicago The Human Resources Management Association of Chicago (HRMAC) is a corporate membership organization focused on delivering services to primarily Chicago area employers. As the oldest traditional such organization in the U.S., it is a stand-alone ...

– 2010 * Walgreens recognized as Diversity Council Honors Award Winner – 2011 * Human Spirit Award from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Conference on Employment of People With Disabilities – 2013

Books, talks, and miscellaneous

* ''No Greatness Without Goodness: How a Father's Love Changed a Company and Sparked a Movement'' by Randy Lewis * Lewis has a contribution in the book ''Able! How One Company's Extraordinary Workforce Changed the Way We Look at Disability Today'' by Nancy Henderson * Testimony before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on March 2, 2011, at 10 a.m. transcript and full hearing video * Business & Disability: Walgreens – Randy Lewis on integration of people with disabilities * "Employees at This Walgreens Distribution Center Are More Able Than Disabled",

ABC News ABC News is the journalism, news division of the American broadcast network American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other progra ...

* "Walgreens Program Puts 'Able' in Disabled",

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's ...

Brzezinski, Mika (July 2, 2007)
"Walgreens Program Puts 'Able' in Disabled"

References

External links

NogWog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Randy Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) 1950s births 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American non-fiction writers American accountants American corporate directors American expatriates in Peru American businesspeople in retailing Businesspeople from Chicago Businesspeople from Texas American disability rights activists Ernst & Young Living people McCombs School of Business alumni Writers from Chicago Writers from Texas 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers