Staffing

Starbucks' Rossann Williams departing by month's end

June 20, 2022

Rossann Williams, head of StarbucksCorp.'s North American business, is leaving the company by month's end as interim CEO as Starbucks Founder Howard Schultz reshapes the company's executive team.

Williams, who started at Starbucks as a regional vice president in 2004, has been one of the company's main leaders in responding to efforts by baristas to unionize.

She was offered another role at the company, according to the WSJ, but chose to step down.

"The decision was not taken lightly," Starbucks Chief Operating Officer John Culver said in a message Friday to employees.

In her message to Starbucks workers, Williams, thanked employees for their efforts through a difficult period, and for challenging what she called the company's status quo. "Starbucks is a company, a family, a belief system, and a tremendous light with a great future," she wrote.

Williams is not the first leader to leave the company since Schultz, who said he was looking for talent that the company does not yet have, returned as CEO. Its chief human resources officer, executive vice president of public affairs and senior vice president of public policy departed in May, and the general counsel left in April.

Schultz said he is considering only external candidates for the CEO role and hopes to identify that person by fall.

Sara Trilling, Starbucks's current president of its Asia Pacific operation, will lead the North American business as of June 21, the company said. Cliff Burrows, a former Starbucks president brought back by Schultz as an adviser to the company in recent months, will help Trilling.