Starbucks Appoints Tressie Lieberman as Global Chief Brand Officer Amid Major Organizational Overhaul
Starbucks has announced the appointment of Tressie Lieberman as its new executive vice president and global chief brand officer. Lieberman, who previously served as chief marketing officer at Yahoo for the past year, will be relocating to Seattle for her new role. She will report directly to CEO Brian Niccol, who took the helm of the coffee giant in August.
Lieberman brings extensive experience in the restaurant industry to her new position. She previously worked alongside Niccol at Chipotle, where she held the role of vice president of digital marketing and off-premise. Her resume also includes leadership positions at other prominent food chains such as Snap Kitchen, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut.
In her new capacity at Starbucks, Lieberman will oversee a wide range of responsibilities, including marketing, product development, digital initiatives, creative efforts, and data analytics and insights. This appointment comes at a crucial time for the company, as Niccol aims to revitalize the Starbucks brand amid declining sales. According to recent reports, Niccol is focusing on emphasizing the company’s core strengths in crafting premium, handmade coffee beverages.
Niccol expressed his confidence in Lieberman’s ability to reinvigorate the Starbucks brand, stating, “Starbucks is a brand people love. It’s time to tell our story again and reintroduce Starbucks to the world. Tressie is the perfect person to help us do that.”
The coffee company has also announced organizational changes as part of its restructuring efforts. Sara Trilling, who serves as executive vice president and president of Starbucks North America, will gain new direct reports. This move is intended to establish clear
accountability for the aesthetic and functionality of Starbucks stores, from concept through design and development. Among those reporting to Trilling are Angele Robinson-Gaylord, who leads store development, and Dawn Clark, senior vice president and executive creative director.
In addition, Starbucks is consolidating its Global Communications and Corporate Affairs into a single team. Dominic Carr will lead this unified group, adding “corporate affairs” to his previous title of chief communications officer. Carr will report directly to the CEO, while AJ Jones II will continue to lead the Corporate Affairs team, reporting to Carr.
In other industry news, Seattle-based biotech startup Shape
Therapeutics has announced the departure of its co-founder and CEO, Francois Vigneault. The company’s Chief Scientific Officer, David Huss, has assumed the role of interim CEO as the search for a permanent replacement begins. Vigneault expressed pride in the company’s achievements and his desire to return to his passion for developing groundbreaking early-stage technologies across various industries.
Shape Therapeutics, founded in 2018, has made significant strides in RNA editing technologies that can alter RNA sequences, which are crucial for encoding the body’s protein building blocks. The company’s potential was recognized in 2021 when it secured a deal with pharmaceutical giant Roche, potentially worth over $3 billion, to support the development of gene therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Meanwhile, Seattle-based startup Read AI has bolstered its team with two key hires. Kate Reinmiller joins as vice president of operations, bringing extensive experience from leadership roles at companies such as MOGL, Boltive, and Mixpo. Karin Rodriguez has been appointed as principal recruiter, having previously worked with companies like The UpGroup, Stanley, GoDaddy, and Wyze Labs.
Read AI, which launched three years ago, utilizes artificial intelligence to generate comprehensive meeting summaries, including topics discussed, action items, questions, and AI-generated video highlight playbacks. The company’s co-founder and CEO, David Shim, emphasized the importance of these new hires as the company
experiences significant growth.
Lastly, DevZero, a Seattle startup that enables developers to write code in the cloud, has hired Alberto Grande as its new head of marketing. Grande previously held the position of vice president of marketing at X-Team, a company that provides on-demand teams of software engineers to various organizations. DevZero, which raised $26 million in funding last year, continues to expand its team to support its innovative cloud-based development platform.
