02 March 2021
The number of women at the helm of America’s biggest companies pales in comparison to men, but is newly growing — and their tasks are huge.
What's going on: Jane Frasertook over at Citigroup this week, the first woman to ever lead a major U.S. bank. Rosalind Brewer will take the reins at Walgreens in the coming weeks (March 15) — a company that's been run by white men for more than a century.
Details: In Fraser's case, one task includes overcoming the perception of a "glass cliff," a heavily researched phenomenon of women being elevated as a company is in need of a cleanup.
What’s going on: Fraser, who’s been at Citi for nearly two decades, is stepping up as the bank faced an onslaught of trouble in recent years.
- (A few) things on Fraser's to-do list: quell regulatory concerns, up the bank's lagging stock price — and deal with fallout from the $900 million the bank accidentally sent to a group of creditors.
- On day one, Fraser promised the bank would get to net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 — a climate goal promised by peers Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.
Brewer is taking over as Walgreens plays a big role in the country's largest undertaking: getting the masses vaccinated.
- Walgreens also faces existential threats: Insurers are pinching pharmacy profits. Brick-and-mortar pharmacies are also less essential in the Amazon era, when people can order what they need online.
- Competitor CVS bought insurer Aetna in 2018. Here's the sense on Wall Street: your move, Walgreens. (The company has used partnerships to infuse health services into its retail locations).
What to watch: 31 out of 500 of America's biggest companies are run by women, including Fraser and Brewer.
- It's both dismal and a feat, given it's close to an all-time record.
What's next: More churn for America's female leaders.
- Margaret Keane, chief executive at Symphony Financial, will step down in April. (Brian Doubles, a white man, will step in.)
- Thasunda Brown Duckett, a Black woman, will take over as CEO of money manager TIAA.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.