Investing.com -- Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) named former Adobe executive vice president and Chief Information Officer Gerri Martin-Flickinger as its Chief Technology Officer on Tuesday, as part of a push to spur innovation and technological growth at one of the world's largest coffee companies.
Martin-Flickinger has earned numerous accolades in her 30 years of professional business experience, including the last nine at Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE). While at the Silicon Valley-based digital marketing and digital media solutions company, Martin-Flickinger received high marks for helping transform Adobe into a cloud-based business. Before joining Adobe, Martin-Flickinger served as the CIO of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN), where she oversaw corporate information technology for the company's 60 global offices.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with an amazing team at Adobe, and I look forward to taking this next step in my career as I assume the role of chief technology officer at Starbucks, a brand that I love," Martin-Flickinger said in a statement. "The Pacific Northwest is where I was raised, so I am pleased to be returning there. I am thrilled to be joining the strong team already in place at Starbucks."
"Starbucks is on the cusp of entering into its next phase of technology leadership, and I am honored to be working alongside Starbucks strong IT management team to map out our long-term strategy."
Earlier this year, Martin-Flickinger was honored as a 2015 CIO Leader by HMG Strategy and was also named to a list of the 25 Smartest Women on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR). Martin-Flickinger, who is a member of the Wall Street Journal CIO Network and the Sierra Ventures CIO Advisory Board, received a bachelor's degree in computer science from Washington State University.
“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,” Starbucks president and chief operating officer Kevin Johnson said in a statement.
Separately, Starbucks announced on Tuesday that it will launch its mobile order service in Canada later this month when it will introduce the initiative at 300 company-owned stores in Toronto.
Shares in Starbucks fell mildly by 0.78 or 1.33% to 57.91 in after-hours trading.