DEERFIELD, Ill. — In another round of personnel moves, Walgreen Co. has promoted three vice presidents, including its pharmacy chief.

The company said Friday that Kermit Crawford has been promoted from senior vice president to executive vice president of pharmacy services. Chain Drug Review had recently honored Crawford as its Chain Drug Pharmacy Executive of the Year.

Walgreens also promoted Dana Green from senior vice president to executive vice president and general counsel, and Colin Watts, the retailer’s divisional vice president of innovation and new product development, to a corporate vice president.

All of the promotions are effective immediately, the drug store chain said.

Crawford, 50, started his career with Walgreens as a pharmacy intern in 1983 while earning his pharmacy degree at Texas Southern University in Houston. He progressed through many store positions in several markets before being named vice president of store operations in 2000. Crawford later ran Walgreens’ pharmacy benefit management services in its Walgreens Health Services division before taking his current role as head of pharmacy services in 2007.

"In the last few years, Kermit has led our pharmacy business on an upward path while managing a complex regulatory and competitive environment," president and chief executive officer Greg Wasson said in a statement. "Kermit’s leadership skills are one of his most admirable traits. He drives results and places a special emphasis on developing the people he works with."

Green, 60, joined Walgreens in 1974 as an attorney in employee relations and was promoted to director and, in 1998, divisional vice president of that department. She became corporate vice president of human resources in 2000 and then senior vice president of human resources four years later. She was named Walgreens’ general counsel in 2005.

"As we’ve entered new businesses over the last few years, the extent and complexity of the company’s legal responsibilities have increased dramatically," Wasson commented. "Throughout this transition, Dana has helped expand our company while maintaining our strong ethics."

Watts, 44, was vice president and general manager at the Campbell Soup Co. and president of McNeil Consumer Healthcare Worldwide before joining Walgreens in 2008, the retailer said.

"Colin has developed an impressive team from all our businesses and is collaborating with many groups to develop a solid pipeline of new products and services to bring to market, including our Walgreens Optimal Wellness program we announced this week," remarked Wasson. "Under Colin’s leadership, our focus on innovation and on accelerating the process for developing new products and services will help grow our company."

Over the past couple of months, Walgreens has made a flurry of executive moves.

At the end of December, the chain named Mike Arnoult as vice president of Customer-Centric Retailing, its store optimization initiative, and promoted Miguel Almeida to divisional vice president of online merchandising and Jasbir Patel to director and general merchandise manager of online photo.

In late November, Walgreens announced a trio of personnel changes. Laura Merten was named divisional vice president of compliance, loss prevention and profit sharing, replacing company veteran Chester Young, who is slated to retire at the end of January. Bryan Schneider, director of health care contracting and regulatory law, was appointed to replace Merten as divisional vice president of health law. Also, Paul Eddy joined the company as divisional vice president of pharmacy applications.

And a week before those moves were announced, Walgreens said it hired Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as senior vice president and chief human resources officer and Charles Greener as vice president of corporate affairs and communications, a newly created position.