Starbucks’ next CEO will come from outside the company, interim head Howard Schultz told The Wall Street Journal.
“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 told the Journal.
Schultz returned for his third stint as CEO last April when Kevin Johnson announced he was retiring after five years on the job. Since being named, Schultz has denied any intention to stay as head of the Washington, Seattle based company.
While the company’s board said that it is moving forward to name a successor this fall, Schultz will stay on as interim CEO through the first quarter of the company’s fiscal 2023, which is around the end of the calendar year.
“This timeline provides the company the ideal runway for a seamless transition and continuity of leadership through the 2022 holiday season, as the business transformation continues,” Starbucks said.
Schultz will remain on the company’s board.
The company is still recovering from the covid pandemic and faces a push by baristas to unionize in the U.S.
Schultz has aggressively campaigned against the union push, which also weighed on Starbucks’ stock. According to analysts the union efforts could be behind Starbucks’ decision to look externally for a new CEO.
