Starbucks has named Indian-origin technology leader Anand Varadarajan as its new Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The company said Varadarajan will start his new role on January 19. He will be part of Starbucks’ top leadership team and will report directly to CEO Brian Niccol. He takes over from Deb Hall Lefevre who retired in September. Varadarajan brings nearly 20 years of experience from Amazon where he worked on building large and customer-focused technology systems. Most recently he led technology and supply chain operations for Amazon’s Worldwide Grocery Stores business. Before joining Amazon he worked as a software engineer at Oracle and was also associated with several startups. Starbucks said Varadarajan has strong expertise in creating secure and reliable technology systems and in scaling platforms that support smooth operations while always keeping the customer experience at the centre. Who is Anand Varadarajan? Anand Varadarajan is an Indian-origin technology leader with a strong background in engineering and large-scale digital systems. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Varadarajan holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue University and another master’s degree in computer science from the University of Washington. According to Starbucks his appointment is expected to speed up the company’s technology plans and strengthen digital systems across its global operations helping improve both efficiency and customer experience.