Starbucks Australia has appointed Gelatissimo boss Braeden Lord as its new CEO.
Lord takes up the new role on 25 November; he has been a non-executive director at Starbucks since 2014.
Lord has held senior leadership roles in the franchising community since 2000. He spent nearly 12 years with Bakers Delight, as managing director of the Australia and New Zealand business, and five years as director of international development. This latter role included a four year spell as president of Bakers Delight’s Canadian business, Cobs Bread.
Lord was CEO at Aussie Farmers Direct and Grill’d and then took a GM retail operations and property role at 7-Eleven. In April 2022 he joined Gelatissimo as CEO.
Earlier this year Gelatissimo opened its 50th Australian store; last year it introduced a brand new look.
Lord takes over the CEO role from Chris Garlick, who has helmed the business for a decade.
The coffee business has a footprint of 72 stores, and 45 further sites in the pipeline.
In a statement, Lord said his goal is to position Starbucks as “Australia’s favourite coffee brand while respecting the country’s strong independent coffee culture”.
