by Peter High, published on Forbes
10-6-15
Today, Gerri Martin-Flickinger has been named the first ever Chief Technology Officer of Starbucks. She will start work at the Seattle-based coffee behemoth on November 2. Martin-Flickinger ends a successful tenure as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Adobe, where, as was detailed in this column, she helped usher in the company’s pivot to the cloud.
“Gerri is a technologist at heart and has a 30-year track record of leveraging technology-based solutions to drive business value. As we continue to shape our global technology agenda at Starbucks, we needed leadership talent with deep experience in cloud, big data analytics, mobile and security to take us to the next level. As we searched for that leader, Gerri stood out as someone who has years of experience in Silicon Valley and brings deep management and technical expertise to help us navigate the future,” said Kevin Johnson, Starbucks president and chief operating officer.
Martin-Flickinger will report to Johnson and serve as a member of Starbucks senior leadership team. As chief technology officer, Martin-Flickinger will lead the company’s IT organization, and will champion the next phase of innovation and growth for Starbucks.
Prior to her time at Adobe, Martin-Flickinger held a variety of posts including holding the Chief Information Officer post at VeriSign, Network Associates, and McAfee Associates. Prior to that, she held senior technology roles at Chevron Corporation.
