Ola Snow, Chief Human Resources Officer at Cardinal Health, will step down in February 2026, closing a beautiful 24-year chapter with the Ohio-based healthcare giant. Since taking the role in 2018, Snow has been a driving force behind the Fortune 500 giant’s cultural and strategic turnaround.
Cardinal Health, which employs 50,000 people globally, has leaned heavily on her principles, especially during a period of sweeping transformation. Under CEO Jason Hollar, appointed in 2022, the company successfully embraced digital innovation and pursued three major acquisitions since last year.
Snow’s HR strategy has remained pivotal in aligning the company workforce with these ambitions. “I made a commitment to the organization and the board… around helping with this transformation,” she reflected.
An end to the transformative tenure of Cardinal Health CEO Ola Snow
The announcement of Ola Snow’s retirement as chief human resources officer at Cardinal Health marks a turning point for the Ohio-based healthcare giant. Snow has been a steady hand through a period of sweeping change, helping steer the $180bn Fortune 500 company through acquisitions, digital overhauls and cultural transformation.
Her departure, and the appointment of long-serving HR executive Val Pitteroff as her successor, highlights the quiet but critical role succession planning plays in keeping corporate momentum intact.
Snow’s seven-year tenure coincided with a defining chapter for Cardinal Health. The healthcare giant has been reshaping itself under chief executive Jason Hollar, who took helm in 2022. Three acquisitions since last autumn and an accelerated digital push have been key to company turnaround. For Snow, ensuring that the human side of the business kept pace with that ambition meant embedding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into Cardinal’s culture while maintaining deep ties to the communities it serves.
“I made a commitment to the organisation and the board … around helping with this transformation,” she reflected, framing her work as aligning people strategy with corporate renewal.
A seamless succession plan
You would be mistake if you believed her successor is an outsider coming in to shake things up. Pitteroff joined Cardinal in 2002 and has risen steadily through the ranks. From 16 February 2026, she will step into the CHRO role, reporting directly to Hollar. Her responsibilities include all HR functions, including the DEI agenda Snow has long championed. For Snow, it is once again a unique case study in the dividends of nurturing talent from within. As she once put it: “Succession planning should begin the day you take the job.”
That philosophy shaped Pitteroff’s development. She was given exposure to board meetings, compensation cycles and other high-stakes forums long before the transition was formalized in early 2025. Snow describes it as a blend of intuition and timing, “You’ll just know when you know.”
For Pitteroff, this unique process has bridged the gap between theory and practice. “Development doesn’t happen once we decide that Val is the person,” Snow explained. “We’ve been doing development for her for several years.”
A legacy for the future
Snow’s departure comes at a time when the healthcare industry faces extreme supply chain pressures and intense technological disruption. Her leadership has bolstered Cardinal’s resilience, while placing DEI at the heart of its workplace culture. Pitteroff, widely respected inside the organization, is expected to continue that legacy while shaping the next phase of Cardinal’s transformation.
“This is more than a handover,” Snow said, expressing pride in her successor. “I truly believe she will be even more successful.”
Subscribe to the leading Human Resources Magazine to receive exclusive HR news and insights directly to your inbox.
