Starbucks new CEO taps fellow Chipotle alum for top marketing role

By Waylon Cunningham

(Reuters) - Starbucks on Friday announced it hired food marketing veteran Tressie Lieberman to take its top marketing job, the latest in a spate of executive reshuffling by new CEO Brian Niccol.

Lieberman and Niccol overlapped at Chipotle, where Niccol served as CEO until August, when he was poached by Starbucks. Lieberman was Chipotle's vice president of digital marketing and off-premise sales from 2018 to 2023.

"It’s time to tell our story again and reintroduce Starbucks to the world. Tressie is the perfect person to help us do that," Niccol said in a statement.

Lieberman's new role as executive vice president and global chief brand officer begins on Nov. 4. Starbucks said she will be in charge of marketing, product development, creative and data analytics and insights.

Niccol in a public letter last month said marketing was a central plank of his vision for Starbucks, which has suffered from slumping sales in recent quarters.

In addition to Chipotle, Lieberman previously held senior marketing roles at Yahoo, Snap Kitchen and Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and other restaurant chains.

Starbucks' leadership team has undergone changes since Niccol took over.

In September, the chain announced that North America CEO Michael Conway was retiring, and that the company would not fill his position. Instead, North America retail operations head Sarah Trilling will report directly to Niccol.

Starbucks also announced on Tuesday that teams in charge of concepts, store designs and store development would be consolidated under Trilling. That is intended to "create clear accountability for the look and feel of our stores from concepts through design to development," it said.

Starbucks also announced it was consolidating its communications and corporate affairs teams.

(This story has been corrected to change the day to Friday in paragraph 1 and to say that it is consolidating its communications and corporate affairs teams, not its marketing teams, in paragraph 10)

(Reporting by Waylon Cunningham; Editing by Bill Berkrot)