Starbucks makes top management change as COO leaves after 23 years

Starbucks Coffee Company said on January 22 that starting March 1 the new president and COO of the company will be Kevin Johnson, who was a board member since 2009.

Johnson replaces Troy Alstead, who worked for 23 years at Starbucks and during that time built the company’s international business units.

Alstead had worked specifically in the European, Middle East and Africa business units, Starbucks had said in a release in mid-January.

Starbucks is present in 68 countries in the world. Its international expansion started in the second half of the 1990s.

The company is headed by Howard Schultz. He led the company into a multinational. He started out as an employee of the company, then named Il Giornale, and changed the name into Starbucks before it started its expansion.

“Kevin’s deep management experience and technology background will help further propel Starbucks efforts in partner (employee) and customer-facing innovations as we accelerate our global growth agenda,” chairman and CEO Schultz said.

As president and chief operating officer, Johnson will lead the company’s global operating businesses across the Americas, EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa), and China/Asia Pacific, as well as Starbucks supply chain, information technology, and mobile and digital platforms.