Written by: Katie Scott, Business Reporter
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Howard Schultz revealed that the new CEO of Starbucks will come from outside of the company’s ranks.
Schultz, the company’s interim CEO, stated that he is not a candidate to stay in the role and has already held talks with “several promising CEO prospects”. “For the future of the company, we need a domain of experience and expertise in a number of disciplines that we don’t have now,” Schultz stated to the newspaper. He suggested that the new CEO will be in place by the Autumn.
Schultz returned to the role for the third time in April, when former CEO, Kevin Johnson, retired after five years in the job. In his tenure, Johnson faced the Pandemic as well as rising voices calling for unionisation for Starbucks' workers. CNBC has been reporting on Schultz’ campaign against this “union push” but this has seen the company’s shares fall 13 percent since he re-joined.
In the interview with the WSJ, Schultz reiterated his plan to leave the role by the shareholder meeting in March.
