CVS Health Corp. will drop three directors from its 16-member board, including Mark Bertolini, the former chief executive of Aetna, the health insurer it bought in a transformative $68 billion deal in 2018.
The changes, which will shrink the board to 13 members, are being made to “further align with corporate governance best practices,” Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS said in a statement Monday.
A CVS spokesman didn’t immediately respond to questions about why Bertolini was stepping down. The Aetna acquisition, announced in December 2017, was the health, pharmacy and benefits company’s biggest-ever deal, and a bet that the U.S. health-care system is shifting to a more integrated model.
Also leaving the board are Richard Swift, the former CEO of Foster Wheeler Ltd., the energy-services company, and Richard Bracken, the ex-CEO of for-profit hospital chain HCA Inc.
CVS said the changes will go into effect after the company’s annual meeting of shareholders. The company hasn’t set a date for the 2020 meeting yet; last year’s was held in May.