by New CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company: Indian-origin Laxman Narasimhan appointed as CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company.
Prior to this, Laxman Narasimhan (age 55) was the CEO of UK-based Reckitt Benckiser. The company is a consumer health and nutrition company. The executive board meeting of Starbucks was held yesterday. In this meeting it was decided and announced to appoint Lakshman Narasimhan as the CEO of the company.
Lakshman Narasimhan will join Starbucks as CEO on October 1, 2022. Narasimhan will join the Executive Committee in April 2023 in a fully formal manner. Until then, Starbucks’ current CEO, Howard Schultz, will continue.
In a statement released by Reckitt Bencigar, where Narasimhan is currently working, “Lakshman Narasimhan will step down as the CEO of our company with effect from September 30.”
“Lakshman Narasimhan is an exciting leader,” Starbucks executive director Melody Hobson said in a statement. His deep experience will help him in how to deal with international clients. He will be the perfect opportunity to take Starbucks to the next level,” he said.
Indians are already holding key positions in various organizations in the US. Narasimhan also joined them. Nathella Satya is the CEO of Microsoft, Shantanu Narayan is the CEO of Adobe, Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Alphabet and Barak Agarwal is the CEO of Twitter. Prior to this, Indira Nooyi was the CEO of Pepsi & Co for almost 12 years.
Laxman Narasimhan is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from Pune University. He then completed his MA in German and Postgraduate Studies in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, USA. After that, Narasimhan also completed his MBA course at Wharton School.
Prior to this, Narasimhan was International Business Officer at Pepsi & Co. Apart from that, Narasimhan has also been the CEO of PepsiCo for Latin America, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Narasimhan was a senior consultant at McKinsey and Company.