Buoyed by good examples, supportive workplace

CONTROLLING THE FLOW: CVS Caremark’s Carol DeNale plays a key role in managing cash for the pharmacy retail and benefits-management giant. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
CONTROLLING THE FLOW: CVS Caremark’s Carol DeNale plays a key role in managing cash for the pharmacy retail and benefits-management giant. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

The only person in control of your success is you. So says Carol DeNale, senior vice president and corporate treasurer of CVS Caremark Corp.
And by focusing on her company’s success, DeNale has found plenty for herself as a business leader.
“I am a businesswoman who, along with my colleagues, has worked hard to ensure that CVS Caremark is successful. And, as a woman in business I can look at certain situations and issues with a different perspective,” she said.
DeNale started with CVS Caremark 15 years ago as the company’s cash manager. Today she directs the company’s capital structure; the cash management, risk management and EHS (environment, health and safety) departments, along with capital expenditure, balance sheet forecasting, leasing and business continuity.
She has been responsible for securing financing for transactions that have allowed for the company’s continued growth from a $15 billion retail pharmacy to the $100 billion health care company it is today.
And that’s only a sample of her many accomplishments.
Still, the assumption remains that it is more difficult for a woman to succeed in business. If that’s true, it has not stopped DeNale.
“I’m not sure if it is harder for women or not,” she said. “I have never viewed the workplace in this manner. What I have come to realize is that everyone in the workplace needs to determine what they want and what is required for them to achieve success. … Once you realize this and take charge of what you want, your opportunities are limitless.”
Her possibilities were first gleaned when she was young, growing up a Steelers fan in Pittsburgh. (“We Steelers fans are everywhere,” she warned.)
Both of her parents were successful in their careers, but it was her father’s path that interested her the most and offered a broader perspective. His success as an accountant at U.S. Steel “made me realize that an accounting degree provided a solid background to be successful in many areas,” she said. It is variety that drives DeNale, and it’s also what she loves most about the business. She doesn’t mind a project with a lot of moving parts.
Her track record backs this up. In her time at CVS Caremark, she played the primary role in arranging and securing the financing for the company’s acquisitions of Eckerd stores in 2004 and the 700 Osco and Sav-on drugstores in 2006, giving CVS/pharmacy immediate market leadership in Florida, Texas, and southern California.
DeNale also ran point in arranging the financing and setting up CVS Caremark’s capital structure as part of the merger of CVS and Caremark in 2007.
When times went rough in the 2008 financial-market crisis, her leadership made it possible for CVS Caremark to secure financing to acquire Longs Drugs stores. And just in time. It wasn’t long afterward that the financial market shut down.
While she would not say this sort of success is prohibited for women in other companies, she was quick to point out the benefits of her company’s corporate climate. The environment, she said, fosters creativity, expanded training and recognition.
“At CVS Caremark, we are constantly looking for ways to improve and continually looking for ways to innovate. This is reflected in the business climate for women in the company, where just about anything you desire is possible. Success at CVS Caremark is limited only by the heights that you want to achieve.” •

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