Meet Anand Varadarajan: Coffee chain giant Starbucks appoints Indian-origin Amazon techie as its new CTO

Starbucks said on Friday that it has appointed a new chief technology officer following Deb Hall Lefevre’s retirement in September.

Starbucks appoints new CTO

According to an official message statement shared on the coffee chain’s website, Indian-origin Anand Varadarajan will join the team as the CTO and the executive vice president, starting January 19, 2026.

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said that once Varadarajan joins, he will be a member of the Executive Leadership Team, as he leads the Starbucks Technology organisation.

Niccol shared the message online, saying, "I’m proud to share that Anand Varadarajan will join us as executive vice president and CTO, starting January 19. He’ll be part of the Executive Leadership Team, lead the Starbucks Technology organization, and will report directly to me."

"Outside of work, he’s an avid runner aiming to complete all seven World Marathon Majors. He’s also a coffee enthusiast and starts most days with a tall latte or brewed coffee, followed by an order of Starbucks egg bites for lunch," the CEO added.

Varadarajan will directly report to the company CEO. Until he steps in, Ningyu Chen is serving as the interim CTO.

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Who is Anand Varadarajan?

Before joining Starbucks, Anand Varadarajan was associated with Amazon for nearly 19 years, building technology with a customers-first vision in mind, and maintaining the team’s speed and agility. He is currently serving as the Vice President, Worldwide Grocery Technology and Supply Chain at Amazon.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he previously led the technology, science, product and marketing teams for Amazon Private Brands.

Earlier, he had held software engineering roles at Oracle and worked for several startups.

Varadarajan got his undergraduate degree from the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He got his master’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue and in computer science from the University of Washington.

Hall Lefevre’s resignation came shortly after Starbucks announced plans to sack around 900 non-retail employees in addition to shutting down underperforming stores in the US and Canada.

Back in February, the leading coffee chain company had already cut 1,100 corporate professionals. The changes were motioned by CEO Brian Niccol to make Starbucks technologically advanced.

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