Starbucks appoints Anand Varadarajan as chief technology officer

SEATTLE: Starbucks has named Indian-origin technology executive Anand varadarajan as its new executive vice president and chief technology officer, bringing in a long-serving Amazon leader to steer the coffee chain’s global technology operations.

Varadarajan will assume the role on January 19, join the executive leadership team and report to chief executive Brian Niccol. He succeeds Deb Hall Lefevre, who retired in September.

He joins Starbucks after nearly 19 years at Amazon, where he worked across a range of large-scale consumer and enterprise platforms. Most recently, he led technology and supply chain for Amazon’s worldwide grocery stores business. Earlier in his career, he held engineering roles at Oracle and worked with several start-ups.

Starbucks said Varadarajan’s experience in building secure, reliable systems and scaling technology to support complex operations would be critical as the company deepens its digital and data-led initiatives globally.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Varadarajan holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Washington.

The appointment comes as Starbucks looks to strengthen its technology backbone across stores, supply chains and digital channels. For a business built on routine and scale, the next phase now rests firmly in code.