Starbucks Hires First Chief Technology Officer -- Update
October 06 2015 - 5:08PM
Dow Jones News
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 julie.jargon@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 06, 2015 16:53 ET (20:53 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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