Schultz returns to lead Starbucks on interim basis

Longtime Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is returning to lead the company on an interim basis after the coffee giant’s current chief executive announced his retirement.

Kevin Johnson said he will retire next month after five years as president and CEO and 13 years at Starbucks. Johnson, a former executive at Microsoft and Juniper Networks, succeeded Schultz as CEO in 2017.

In an open letter to Starbucks’ employees, Johnson, 61, said he told the company’s board last year that he was considering retirement. His most obvious successor had been Roz Brewer, the company’s chief operating officer, but Brewer left the company in February 2021 to become the top executive at Walgreens.

Starbucks said its board has been engaged in “continuous CEO succession planning” since last year and expects to name a permanent CEO by this fall. While Schultz leads the company, he will get $1 in compensation. Schultz, 68, is also rejoining Starbucks’ board.

At the company’s annual meeting Wednesday, board chairwoman Mellody Hobson said Schultz is “singularly qualified” to be the company’s interim CEO.

“Who better to reinforce our culture than its creator?” Hobson said in a video.

But some observers expressed surprise the board would name Schultz instead of a new permanent CEO.

“It’s curious that they were not able to find a successor within a year,” said Timothy Hubbard, assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “For a company the size and stature of Starbucks not to have a solid succession plan is surprising.”