CIO to CEO: 56 Moving Up The Ladder - ' Dawn Lepore, CEO, Drugstore' (
Page 7 of 9 )
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DAWN LEPORE
CEO, Drugstore.com
Formerly:
CIO, Charles
Schwab & Co.
How She's Done: Drugstore.com
has yet to book a
profitable year. But
the nine-year-old
health and beauty
company may finally
become profitable in
2008, analysts say. If
so, a lot of the credit
will go to Lepore, who joined Drugstore.com in 2004 and has helped drive up the
company’s average customer sale by $4, to
$78 in 2005 from $74 in 2003.
Lepore, 52, evidently has the board’s
confidence. In early January, it gave her
a retention grant of stock options along
with a $50,000 raise, to $400,000 from
$350,000. The company declined requests
for interviews.
Lepore, who oversaw information technology
as CIO and vice chairman for 11
years at Schwab, isn’t the first former CIO
to lead Drugstore.com, an Internet company
created just before the dot-com bust.
Her predecessor, Kal Raman, rose from
Drugstore’s chief technology officer to
COO to CEO during his six years there.
In remarks to financial analysts late last
year, Lepore said she considers I.T. a necessary
investment for her Web site. “To me,
this is our store,” she said. “So, just like a
brick-and-mortar store continues to invest
and remodel, we have to continually add
to our Web site. That’s how we continue
to delight our customers. It’s important we
pay attention to that.”
Next page: Lloyd Devaux, COO, BankAtlantic
Projects: Management 
