By Waylon Cunningham
(Reuters) – Starbucks (NASDAQ:) said on Friday it has hired food marketing veteran Tressie Lieberman to take on its top marketing job, the latest in a wave of management reshuffling by new CEO Brian Niccol.
Lieberman and Niccol overlapped at Chipotle (NYSE:), where Niccol was CEO until August, when he was poached by Starbucks. Lieberman served as Chipotle’s vice president of digital marketing and external sales from 2018 to 2023.
“It’s time to retell our story and reintroduce Starbucks to the world. Tressie is the perfect person to help us do that,” Niccol said in a statement.
Lieberman’s new role as executive vice president and global chief brand officer begins Nov. 4. Starbucks said she will be responsible for marketing, product development, creative and data analytics and insights.
Niccol said in a public letter last month that marketing is a central part of his vision for Starbucks, which has suffered from declining sales in recent quarters.
In addition to Chipotle, Lieberman previously held senior marketing roles at Yahoo, Snap Kitchen and Yum! Brands (NYSE:), the parent company of Taco Bell and other restaurant chains.
Starbucks’ leadership team has undergone changes since Niccol took over.
In September, the chain announced that North America CEO Michael Conway was retiring and that the company would not fill his role. Instead, Sarah Trilling, head of North American retail operations, will report directly to Niccol.
Starbucks also announced Tuesday that the teams responsible for concepts, store designs and store development would be consolidated under Trilling. This is intended to “create clear accountability for the look and feel of our stores, from concept to design and development,” the report said.
Starbucks also announced that it will consolidate its communications and corporate affairs teams.
(This story has been corrected to change the day in paragraph 1 to Friday and to say it is consolidating its communications and corporate affairs teams, and not its marketing teams, in paragraph 10)
