Biography

Ornella Barra is Chief Executive, Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division, Alliance Boots.

Born in Italy, near Genoa, Ornella graduated from the University of Genoa with a degree in pharmacy in 1979 and embarked on a career in the healthcare sector. She started out as a pharmacist, first managing and then setting up her own pharmacy. In 1984 she founded the pharmaceutical wholesaler Di Pharma, which was taken over in 1986 by Alleanza Salute Italia.

Ornella was appointed Managing Director and later Chairman of Alleanza Salute Italia, which would soon become Italy’s leading pharmaceutical wholesaler operating nationwide. In 1990, she joined the board of Alliance Santé, an international pharmaceutical company. Ornella was personally involved in establishing this company, following a series of acquisitions in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Morocco.

In 1997, Ornella was appointed as board member and Executive Director of Alliance UniChem Plc. after a merger between UniChem and Alliance Santé. In 2006, Alliance UniChem Plc and Boots Group Plc. then merged to form Alliance Boots. Ornella was appointed as board member and Wholesale & Commercial Affairs Director of the new group that was taken over in June 2007 by AB Acquisitions Limited (Stefano Pessina and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, KKR). Ornella was also appointed as Chair of the Social Responsibilities Committee of Alliance Boots.

In 2009, already a member of the Alliance Boots board and Chair of the social responsibilities committee, she became Chief Executive, Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division, Alliance Boots.

Alliance Healthcare, the pharmaceutical wholesale Division of Alliance Boots, operates in around 25 countries. It is also active in Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Romania, Lithuania, Egypt, Algeria and China through its associates and joint ventures. Every day Alliance Healthcare supplies medicines to over 160,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centres and hospitals from over 360 distribution centres.

Ornella is also responsible for Boots International, the health and beauty retail arm outside the UK and Republic of Ireland with store networks in Europe (Norway, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands), Southeast Asia (Thailand) and the Middle East (Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait). Boots International has also developed partnerships with retail chains in the United States and Canada.

In addition to being a member of the board of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (IFPW), Ornella is Vice President of the Italian Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Association (ADF) and a member of the board of ECR Europe (Efficient Consumer Response).

For the second consecutive year, Ornella Barra is featured in the top ten of Fortune magazine’s annual listing of the "50 most powerful international women in business." She is placed in ninth position in the list of 50 global leaders.