{"id":253842,"date":"2024-08-13T13:30:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T13:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/13\/starbucks-drops-ceo-for-chipotle-head-brian-niccol-in-surprise-leadership-shake-up\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:12:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:12:29","slug":"starbucks-drops-ceo-for-chipotle-head-brian-niccol-in-surprise-leadership-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/13\/starbucks-drops-ceo-for-chipotle-head-brian-niccol-in-surprise-leadership-shake-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks drops CEO for Chipotle head Brian Niccol in surprise leadership shake-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Starbucks<\/a> Corp. has named Chipotle Mexican Grill<\/a> Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol as the coffee chain\u2019s new CEO and chairman, replacing Laxman Narasimhan after just over a year in the role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Niccol starts his new role on Sept. 9, the company said in a statement. The current chief financial officer will lead the company until then. Starbucks shares jumped 15% on the news in premarket trading, while Chipotle shares fell 8.3%.<\/p>\n

The abrupt leadership shakeup comes after activist investors Elliott Investment Management and Starboard Value reportedly<\/a> amassed stakes in the company. Shares in the coffee chain had plunged 20% this year following two straight quarters of comparable sales declines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Board chair Mellody Hobson on Monday said the company initiated discussions about the leadership of the company several months ago, downplaying Elliott\u2019s influence in an interview Monday with CNBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you have to make tough decisions and those tough decisions are the right thing to do,\u201d Hobson said in the interview. \u201cIt isn\u2019t necessarily because of outside forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hobson said the board took full responsibility for the weakness at Starbucks and that it wanted to move fast to fix the business. \u201cWe own the outcomes,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not passing any buck and we understand we have a job to do and we\u2019re dong it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although former CEO Howard Schultz doesn\u2019t have a board seat or hold a formal role within the company, Starbucks\u2019 sixth largest shareholder provided a statement of support for the new CEO. Hobson said that she told Schultz a week ago about the decision and \u201che said, \u2018Mellody, that\u2019s a home run.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hobson said the board hasn\u2019t laid out a specific turnaround plan yet, urging patience. \u201cHe\u2019s not in the seat yet, let him get there and then come out with the plans,\u201d she said. \u201cHe will be the one who will drive the strategy and the board will govern, I would imagine that he will look at everything as he should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niccol joined Chipotle as CEO in 2018 and became chair of the company\u2019s board in 2020. The company has outperformed competitors in recent quarters, managing to bring in diners even as others reel from a drop in demand. Chipotle\u2019s shares rose more than 20% this year through Monday\u2019s close. Before joining Chipotle, Niccol was the CEO of Taco Bell.<\/p>\n

Chipotle said that Chief Operating Officer Scott Boatwright will take over as interim. CFO Jack Hartung, who recently said he would retire in 2025, has also changed course and agreed to remain with the company indefinitely as president of strategy, finance and supply chain to ensure a smooth transition, according to a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[ad_1] Starbucks Corp. has named Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol as the coffee chain\u2019s new CEO and chairman, replacing Laxman Narasimhan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}