Howard Schultz is stepping down from
Starbucks
‘ board of directors, the company said Wednesday.
Schultz is retiring from the board effective immediately,
Starbucks
(ticker: SBUX) said. The move is part of a previously planned transition. Schultz stepped down from his third stint as chief executive in March, handing over the reins to new CEO Laxman Narasimhan.
Schultz will hold an honorary title of chairman emeritus following his retirement. He will have no operational or fiduciary duties and plans to leave the company in the hands of the next generation of leaders, the company said.
“I am enormously blessed to have experienced this journey from the ground floor at the company these many years,” Schultz said. “I look forward to supporting this next generation of leaders to steward Starbucks into the future as a customer, supporter and advocate in my role as chairman emeritus.”
Starbucks has elected Wei Zhang to the company’s board, effective Oct. 1. Zhang was recently a senior advisor to
Alibaba Group
and was formerly
Alibaba Pictures Group
‘s president. She currently serves on the board for
Ralph Lauren
(RL).
Shares of Starbucks dipped 0.6% in after-hours trading.
Schultz has had an outsize influence in molding Starbucks as we know it today. Over the span of four decades, he transformed the company from a small store selling coffee beans to a coffee-chain behemoth that now operates more than 36,000 stores worldwide, raking in over $30 billion a year in the process.
This isn’t the first time Schultz has stepped back from a leadership role at Starbucks. He first retired as CEO in 2000, after he helmed the company from the 1980s and navigated it through its initial public offering in 1992. He returned as CEO from 2008 to 2018, after which he was succeeded by Kevin Johnson.
In 2018, Schultz stepped down from the company’s board to prepare for a potential presidential bid. At the time, he was bestowed the honor of chairman emeritus.
Schultz came back in 2022, when Johnson announced his retirement after five years as CEO and 13 years at Starbucks. Schultz rejoined the board and became CEO for a third time. His latest return as chief executive was intentional, the company said, aimed to ensure a smooth transition for the new leadership team.
While his latest tenure at Starbucks was short, it was far from uneventful. Schultz came back just as unionization efforts started to pick up across the company. Since workers in Buffalo, N.Y., voted to become the first U.S. union in the company’s history in December 2021, a little over 350 have followed suit. Starbucks Workers United has since accused Starbucks, under Schultz’s leadership, of engaging in union busting activity. The company has repeatedly denied these claims.
The issue came to a boiling point when Schultz was called to testify over Starbucks’ labor practices before a Senate committee in March. At the hearing, he denied the allegations and said the company complied with the National Labor Relations Act.
Schultz also helped craft and kickstart a strategic reinvention plan for the coffee chain. At the time of its reveal, the company said the plan would result in record new store growth, double-digit revenue growth, and more investments on automation, among other benefits.
Write to Sabrina Escobar at [email protected]
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