Starbucks has appointed Anand Varadarajan as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The company announced on Friday that Varadarajan will take charge from January 19.
The appointment comes as Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol moves ahead with a major technology overhaul in stores. The goal of the overhaul is to improve labour efficiency and modernise store operations.
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Varadarajan replaces Deb Hall Lefevre, who stepped down from the CTO role in September. After her departure, Ningyu Chen was serving as the interim CTO. Varadarajan now takes over at a key time when Starbucks is focusing strongly on using technology to improve how its stores function.
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Before joining Starbucks, Varadarajan spent nearly 19 years at Amazon. During his time there, he worked on customer-focused technology platforms and oversaw supply chain technology for Amazon’s Worldwide Grocery Stores business. Earlier in his career, he also worked at Oracle and several startups.
Varadarajan is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology. He holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Washington.
In a statement, Starbucks said Varadarajan brings strong experience in building secure and reliable systems. The company added that he has a proven ability to scale technology to support smooth operations while keeping customers at the centre.