Pessina was born in Pescara and grew up between Milan, Como and Naples. He graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan in nuclear engineering before starting his career in academia and later joining market research firm ACNielsen in Milan. He wanted to be a nuclear physicist, but was discouraged by the tumultuous political climate of 1970s.
Career
In 1977, Pessina took over his family's pharmaceutical wholesaler in Naples, Italy, and turned it into Alliance Santé, a Franco-Italian pharmaceutical wholesale group. In 1997, it merged with Alliance UniChem. From 2001 to 2004, he served as its CEO. He served as deputy chairman, and later as chairman. The company merged with Boots Group PLC in 2006 and was taken private in July 2007. Pessina was chairman of Alliance Boots from 2007 to 2014 and currently serves as Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Pessina is a director of Walgreens Boots Alliance. He is a director of the Consumer Goods Forum. In a 31January 2015 interview for The Sunday Telegraph, Pessina commented on the prospect of Britain's Labour Party winning the UK general election in May 2015, "If they acted as they speak, it would be a catastrophe... The problem is would they act that way or not? One thing is to threaten and to shout but it is completely different to be in charge and to manage the country day-to-day." He described Labour’s business policies as "not helpful for business, not helpful for the country and in the end it probably won’t be helpful for them". The Sunday Telegraph noted that Pessina "declined to elaborate on which specific policies he disliked". On Sunday 1 February, Labour's shadowBusiness SecretaryChuka Umunna, responded in The Independent, "The British people and British businesses will draw their own conclusions when those who don’t live here, don’t pay tax in this country and lead firms that reportedly avoid making a fair contribution in what they pay purport to know what is in Britain’s best interest." On 2 February, in a live Q&A session with Sky News, the Labour Party leaderEd Miliband said, "The chairman of Boots lives in Monaco and doesn't pay British taxes... I don't think people should take kindly to being told how to vote by someone who avoids paying his taxes." On 2 February, Walgreens Boots Alliance stated, "The comments made by Stefano Pessina were a small part of a much larger conversation and have been taken out of context... Stefano Pessina was expressing his personal views only and is not campaigning against Ed Miliband or the Labour Party." On 6 February, Allister Heath, deputy editor of The Telegraph, described the "attacks" by Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians on Pessina, "one of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs", as being "as nonsensical as they were indefensible".
Personal life
Pessina is the partner of Ornella Barra since 1985; she is co-chief operating officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Pessina was previously divorced and has two adult children.
