text: CVS chief executive's prescription for growth With the purchase of Eckerd Corp. for \$2.15 billion this year, Tom Ryan transformed Rhode Island's CVS Corp. into a national force with more than 5,000 drugstore s. Ryan began working at CVS as a pharmacist in Warwick, R.I., in 1978. Now, as chief executive, he is engineering the integration of 1,260 Eckerd stores. He spoke recently with Globe reporter ...