After 17 years at the helm, Ryan marks final CVS shareholder meeting

WOONSOCKET – Thomas M. Ryan’s career at CVS Caremark Corp. is over.

Ryan oversaw his final annual shareholders meeting Wednesday and officially stepped down as chairman of the Woonsocket-based drug store giant at the close of the meeting.

David W. Dorman, a member of the board of directors since 2006, will fill the role of non-executive chairman.

Relinquishing the chairmanship means Ryan will no longer have a role at CVS, where he started as a pharmacy intern in the early 1970s and more recently led the company through significant growth.

Ryan, who had stepped down as president in May 2010 and as CEO two months ago, got choked up as he addressed the gathering of about 50 shareholders, board members and other CVS executives Wednesday.

“I’ve been fortunate to be …,” he said, then stopped as he regained his composure. “I was in a profession that I was passionate about; I was in a company that I loved; I worked with people I really liked.”

During the meeting, it was almost all business.

In a presentation, Larry J. Merlo, CVS president and CEO, insisted the company's pharmacy benefits management segment had “re-established momentum” despite a disappointing performance in recent years.

CVS Caremark has been under pressure from some shareholders to split the drugstore chain and the pharmacy benefit management unit four years after CVS bought Caremark RX Inc., with the value of the breakup estimated at $25 billion.

While Merlo did not address the possibility of a split directly, he made it clear that CVS Caremark would push forward with a “uniquely integrated pharmacy care business.”

“Our combined business model provides greater access, convenience and choice to consumers and is helping patients improve their health and lower their overall health care costs,” Merlo said.

Ryan’s departure – he had been CEO since 1994 – garnered little mention during the meeting, except when Ryan noted that his wife, Cathy, had been in the audience at the first shareholders meeting he presided over, and his last, Wednesday.

Once the meeting closed, Terrence Murray, a longtime board member and former Fleet Financial CEO, stepped to the podium and told the shareholders Ryan possessed all the attributes that make a CEO great, including being bold and decisive.

It was those attributes that helped take CVS from $4 billion in annual sales in 1994 to nearly $100 billion in 2010, Murray said.

“You don’t have to have a 1000 batting average; you just have to have good batting average,” he said. “But you have to know how to execute. I’m delighted Tom was our leader for the last 17 years.”

A short video tribute to Ryan followed Murray’s remarks.

Ryan acknowledged that recent months have been emotional for him as he prepared to leave the company after more than three decades. But he said Merlo is a great successor.

“I always said he’s a student and a teacher,” Ryan said. “And he will take this company to new heights.”

Ryan should be fine without the steady CVS paycheck.

The Dow Jones Newswire reported Tuesday that Ryan received nearly $125 million in compensation, stock awards and options and retirement money in the last 14 months, according to a recent proxy statement.