• 2 min read
• December 19, 2025

Starbucks chairman and chief executive officer, Brian Niccol, shared the following message with Starbucks partners:

Partners,

Following Deb Hall Lefevre’s retirement in September, we began the search for our next chief technology officer. I’m proud to share that Anand Varadarajan will join us as executive vice president and CTO, starting January 19. He’ll be part of the Executive Leadership Team, lead the Starbucks Technology organization, and will report directly to me.

Anand comes to us from Amazon, where he spent nearly 19 years building technology that puts customers first and helps teams move with speed and agility. Most recently, he led technology and supply chain for their Worldwide Grocery Stores business. He’s also held software engineering roles at Oracle and worked for several startups.

He knows how to create systems that are reliable and secure, drive operational excellence and scale solutions that keep customers at the center. Just as important, he cares deeply about supporting and developing the people behind the scenes that build and enable the technology we use.

Anand earned his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and holds both a master’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue and in computer science from the University of Washington. Outside of work, he’s an avid runner aiming to complete all seven World Marathon Majors. He’s also a coffee enthusiast and starts most days with a tall latte or brewed coffee, followed by an order of Starbucks egg bites for lunch.

I want to thank Ningyu Chen for stepping in as interim CTO. His leadership kept our priorities on track and our technology work moving forward. And I’d like to thank Cathy Smith for her support and oversight of the organization through this transition. I’m confident Anand will help the team build on work underway and accelerate our efforts to deliver the very best of Starbucks for partners and customers.

Please join me in thanking Ningyu and in welcoming Anand to Starbucks.

On we go,

Brian