Walgreens Boots Alliance names marketing lead for APAC

Healthcare, pharmacy and retail company Walgreens Boots Alliance has appointed Gerda Lerchner as head of brands, product and marketing for APAC. In her new position, Lerchner is responsible for building and growing global brands with local relevancy across different markets, consumer needs and distribution model, including owned shops, franchisees, distributors and online or offline channels. She is also tasked with developing products and marketing assets locally. 

Lerchner joined Walgreens Boots Alliance in July 2017. Based in Bangkok, she joined the company as senior manager of retail own brand. She managed P&L responsibility of about 50 sub-brands, identified consumer insights, as well as developed brand and product concepts, design, product and their supporting marketing. She was promoted to head of brands for Asia in February 2020 and remained in the same position until January 2022.

Lerchner also boasts experiences in Asian countries. She worked for Beiersdorf China for three years from February 2014 to January 2017. As a member of the leadership team in China, she steered the direction of the company and was responsible for all marketing related activities from brand or product development to brand building for a diverse brand portfolio. She also led the marketing department with a team working in the areas of brand management, product development, digital marketing, consumer insights and market research. Additionally, Lerchner worked German chemical and consumer goods company Henkel at Bangkok and Shanghai at the early stage of her career. She managed the company's retail hair colouration business in Asia Pacific including brands such as Schwarzkopf, Syoss and Freshlight.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is an integrated healthcare, pharmacy and retail business with a history of about 170 years. Currently, it is operating across the US, Europe and Latin America with about 13,000 stores. It also has more than 315,000 employees and a presence in nine countries through its portfolio of consumer brands such as Walgreens, Boots, Duane Reade, the No7 Beauty Company, Benavides in Mexico and Ahumada in Chile.