--- description: Find out why Karen Lynch is one of the 100 most influential people of 2023. title: Karen Lynch: The 100 Most Influential People of 2023 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbef8583ca77b7160/698a3bdee6e84a691e2affd2/Karen-Lynch-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 13, 2023 # Karen Lynch by Kenneth C. Frazier  Scott McIntyre—The New York Times/Redux As president and CEO of CVS Health, Karen Lynch is on a mission to make health care simpler, more personalized, and more affordable. When you work with Karen, as I have on the American Heart Association CEO Roundtable, you can’t miss her authenticity, candor, and drive to make a positive and profound difference. After taking the helm at CVS in early 2021, Karen spearheaded efforts to [administer COVID vaccines at company pharmacies](https://time.com/collection/time100-companies/5953672/cvs/ "undefined") and more than 40,000 [long-term-care facilities](https://time.com/5923186/covid-19-vaccine-long-term-care-facilities/ "undefined"). On her watch, CVS also increased vaccine access in vulnerable, low-income communities. Most recently, Karen has led a growing movement to reduce the cost of women’s health products, unilaterally cutting prices on [CVS](https://time.com/tag/cvs/ "undefined") store brands, and overseen an expansion into primary care. For Karen, executive leadership means seizing opportunities to help others—including the underserved and the overlooked—and finding new ways for private industry to serve the greater good. _Frazier is Chairman of Health Assurance Initiatives at General Catalyst and a former Merck CEO_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269889/karen-lynch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269889/karen-lynch/"},"headline":"Karen Lynch","datePublished":"2023-04-13T10:32:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:05.403Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269889/karen-lynch/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","sponsorshipblock","TIME100 2023"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbef8583ca77b7160/698a3bdee6e84a691e2affd2/Karen-Lynch-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbef8583ca77b7160/698a3bdee6e84a691e2affd2/Karen-Lynch-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269889/karen-lynch/","name":"Karen Lynch"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME100 | The 100 Most Influential People of 2023","description":"See all the people on Time's 2023 Time 100 list","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/P6RIsapV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-04-13T10:30:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P6RIsapV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269889/karen-lynch/","duration":"PT1M53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269889/karen-lynch/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```