Ornella Barra


Ornella Barra is an Italian-born Monegasque businesswoman. A qualified pharmacist, she is co-chief operating officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance. She has been the partner of the Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina for over 30 years. Ornella was ranked 26th in Fortune Magazine's 2019 most powerful women in business for female executives outside the United States.

Biography

Ornella Barra was born in December 1953
in Chiavari, Genoa, northwest Italy, into a family of entrepreneurs. Ornella graduated as a pharmacist from the University of Genoa in 1979.

Career

After building up a regional pharmaceutical distribution company, Di Pharma, she sold the business to Alleanza Salute Italia, a firm founded and managed by Italian entrepreneur Stefano Pessina. He and Barra became partners both personally and professionally. 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.
Barra is co-chief operating officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Barra is an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham'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, and became chairman in October 2014. She was president of Associazione Distributori Farmaceutici from 2006 to 2009. She became an executive member of ECR Europe in 2007.
From 2013 to 2019 Barra was a member of the board of directors of Assicurazioni Generali.
Barra is a member of the board of directors of AmerisourceBergen since January 2015.

Personal life

She has been the partner of Stefano Pessina, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, for over 30 years.