Starbucks Hires First Chief Technology Officer -- Update

By Julie Jargon 

Starbucks Corp. is tapping a Silicon Valley veteran to be its first chief technology officer as the coffee giant amps up its push into digital ordering.

The Seattle-based company on Tuesday said it had hired former Adobe Systems Inc. executive Gerri Martin-Flickinger to lead its technology team. It is the second major hire of a technology executive at Starbucks. The company in January hired Kevin Johnson, former Juniper Networks Inc. CEO, to be its president and chief operating officer.

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in Starbucks' growth strategy as it seeks new ways to boost sales. In the U.S. 20% of transactions now are made using mobile devices, up from 9% two years ago. Starbucks in recent weeks rolled out nationwide a new mobile app, which allows customers to order and pay for food and drinks before arriving at a Starbucks to pick them up.

Chief Executive Howard Schultz last year announced he was expanding his role to be more involved in the company's digital retailing initiatives. Since then, Starbucks has struck deals with tech companies in an effort to attract more customers.

In July it teamed up with ride-sharing service Lyft Inc. in a deal that allows riders and drivers who use Lyft's mobile app to earn Starbucks loyalty "stars," which can be redeemed for food and drinks at Starbucks outlets. Before that, Starbucks struck a similar deal with music-streaming service Spotify, whose subscribers can earn Starbucks stars.

Starbucks has had a chief information officer, whose responsibilities were similar to those Ms. Martin-Flickinger will assume, but she will play a greater role in shaping the company's technology agenda, and adding the word "technology" to the title "reflects that natural evolution in the role," a spokeswoman said. CIO Curt Garner, who has been with Starbucks for 18 years, plans to help Ms. Martin-Flickinger transition into her new role and then he will leave the company in late November, Starbucks said.

Ms. Martin-Flickinger most recently has been CIO at Adobe, where she oversaw the company's global information-technology team and helped transform the software company into a cloud-based business, will assume her new role at Starbucks on Nov. 2. Prior to Adobe, Ms. Martin-Flickinger was CIO of VeriSign, and before that, CIO of Network Associates Inc. and McAfee Associates Inc.

"Gerri is a technologist at heart," Starbucks' Mr. Johnson said on Tuesday. "As we continue to shape our global technology agenda at Starbucks, we needed leadership talent with deep experience in cloud, big-data analytics, mobile and security to take us to the next level."

Write to Julie Jargon at [e-mail]

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October 06, 2015 16:53 ET (20:53 GMT)

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