Brian Niccol

Current Company

Starbucks — Chairman & CEO

The Turnaround Operator

Brian Niccol became Starbucks CEO in 2024 after engineering one of the most impressive turnarounds in the restaurant industry at Chipotle. Before Chipotle, Brian Niccol held leadership roles at Taco Bell and Procter & Gamble, building a reputation as an operator who could combine brand storytelling with digital innovation and operational discipline. His track record of revitalizing large consumer brands made him one of the most sought-after executives in the industry.

At Chipotle, Brian Niccol took over during a food safety crisis that had devastated the brand’s reputation and stock price. Brian Niccol rebuilt customer trust through transparency, invested heavily in digital ordering and the Chipotlane drive-through concept, and grew the company’s market capitalization from roughly $10 billion to over $80 billion. Brian Niccol’s Chipotle turnaround became a case study in how to rebuild a damaged consumer brand through both marketing and operations.

Reinventing the Starbucks Experience

Brian Niccol joined Starbucks at a challenging moment: same-store sales were declining, the brand was battling perceptions of long wait times and inconsistent quality, and investors were losing patience. As Chairman and CEO, Brian Niccol has focused on simplifying the menu, improving store operations, and reconnecting Starbucks with its identity as a community gathering place — not just a grab-and-go coffee chain.

Brian Niccol’s playbook at Starbucks draws on the same principles that worked at Chipotle: invest in the in-store experience, leverage digital tools to improve throughput, and build a brand narrative that gives customers a reason to choose you over the competition. For Brian Niccol, the challenge at Starbucks is even larger than Chipotle — a global operation with over 35,000 stores and a workforce of hundreds of thousands of partners.