Brian Niccol

Niccol earned a bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Ohio and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he spent 10 years in brand management.⁠[1][2][1]

From 2005 to 2011, Niccol held several executive positions at Pizza HutPizza HutPizza Hut is a pizza restaurant chain founded in 1958 by brothers Dan Carney and Frank Carney in Wichita, Kansas, known for pizzas such as the Original Pan and Original Stuffed Crust; at the end of 2025 it had nearly 20,000 restaurants in 108 countries and territories. PepsiCo acquired it in 1977, and in 1997 it went with PepsiCo’s restaurant spin-off into the company that became Yum! Brands. In 2026 Yum! Brands sold it in two transactions for $2.7 billion in the aggregate: the Mainland China business to Yum China and the rest to the private equity firm LongRange Capital.Open the full entry, a Yum! Brands division, including vice president of strategy, chief marketing officer, and general manager, during which he led brand strategy and positioning and pushed online and mobile app ordering.⁠[2][3][3][3]

In 2011, Niccol joined Taco Bell as chief marketing and innovation officer; he served as president from 2013 to 2014 and as chief executive officer of Taco Bell from January 2015 to February 2018. During this period, Taco Bell launched a breakfast daypart and rolled out mobile ordering and payment across its roughly 7,000 restaurants.⁠[2][3][3]

On February 13, 2018, Chipotle Mexican Grill announced Niccol’s appointment as chief executive officer and a director, effective March 5, 2018, with founder Steve Ells becoming executive chairman. Under the offer letter the two sides signed on February 11, 2018, Niccol received an annual base salary of $1.2 million and a 2018 target bonus of 150% of base salary. Niccol said at the time that he would pair delicious food with consistently great customer experiences and dial up the brand’s cultural relevance through innovation in menu and digital communications.⁠[4][3][4][3]

On March 3, 2020, Chipotle’s board appointed Niccol to the additional position of chairman, while Steve Ells relinquished the position of executive chairman and stepped down from the board.⁠[5][5]

On August 13, 2024, StarbucksStarbucksStarbucks is a publicly traded coffee company headquartered in Seattle, founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl. Howard Schultz subsequently developed its coffeehouse model and international expansion. It operates company-owned and licensed coffeehouses and sells packaged coffee through partners. Its shares trade on Nasdaq under SBUX.Open the full entry announced Niccol’s appointment as chairman and chief executive officer, effective September 9, 2024; former chief executive officer Laxman Narasimhan stepped down immediately, chief financial officer Rachel Ruggeri served as interim CEO during the transition, and board chair Mellody Hobson became lead independent director. Chipotle announced the same day that Niccol would leave effective August 31, 2024, with chief operating officer Scott Boatwright named interim CEO. At the time of the announcement, Niccol served on the board of Walmart; he had previously served on the board of Harley-Davidson and, from 2021 to 2024, on the board of homebuilder KB Home.⁠[2][2][2][2][6][6][7][1]

During his leadership of Chipotle (2018 to 2024), the company’s annual revenue grew from $4.4764 billion in 2017 to $9.8716 billion in 2023.⁠[8][9]

Under his offer letter, Niccol’s initial annual base salary at Starbucks was $1.6 million, with an annual cash incentive target of 225% of base salary and a maximum of 450%; beginning in fiscal 2025, his annual equity awards had a target value of $23 million; he also received a $10 million cash signing bonus and a replacement equity grant with a target value of $75 million to compensate for forfeited Chipotle equity. The offer letter provided that he would not be required to relocate to the Seattle headquarters and would commute; the company would set up a small remote office for him in Newport Beach, California, and he could use the company aircraft for travel between his city of residence and headquarters, with personal use capped at $250,000 a year.⁠[2][2][2][2][10][10][10]

On October 22, 2024, in prepared remarks, Niccol laid out the “Back to Starbucks” strategy: he said some customers felt the company had drifted from its core and made it harder to be a customer than it should be, leading them to visit less often, so the company needed to fundamentally change its recent strategy and refocus on a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather and where it serves the finest coffee, with baristas given the time and tools to provide great service. The strategy includes supporting green apron partners, enhancing the customer experience, reestablishing Starbucks as the community coffeehouse, and strengthening the brand through product development, marketing, and in-store and digital experiences.⁠[11][11][11][11][12]

On September 23, 2025, the Starbucks board approved a restructuring plan under “Back to Starbucks” to close coffeehouses that could not offer the physical environment the brand expects or had no clear path to financial performance and to further restructure the support organization, with costs estimated at about $1 billion, 90% of them attributable to North America. In a September 25 letter to employees, Niccol said that, after accounting for openings, the company-operated store count in North America would decline by about 1% in fiscal 2025, ending the fiscal year with nearly 18,300 stores (company-operated and licensed) in the United States and Canada.⁠[13][13][14][14]

In Niccol’s first full fiscal year (ended September 28, 2025), Starbucks’ consolidated net revenues rose 3% to $37.2 billion, while operating income fell from $5.4 billion to $2.9 billion and operating margin fell from 15.0% to 7.9%, mainly because of restructuring costs including coffeehouse closures.⁠[12][12][12]

Niccol’s total annual compensation at Starbucks was $95.8 million in fiscal 2024 (including $90.29 million in stock awards) and $30.99 million in fiscal 2025; the median annual compensation of Starbucks employees in fiscal 2025 was $17,279 (corresponding to a part-time barista in the United States).⁠[1][1][1]

On November 3, 2025, Starbucks announced a joint venture with Boyu Capital to operate its retail business in China: Boyu would hold up to a 60% interest, while Starbucks would retain 40% and continue to own and license the brand and intellectual property; the deal was based on a cash-free, debt-free enterprise value of about $4 billion, and the joint venture would remain headquartered in Shanghai, operating about 8,000 stores with the aim of growing to as many as 20,000 over time.⁠[15][15][15]

In the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (ended June 28, 2026), Starbucks’ global comparable store sales rose 7.9%, its fourth consecutive quarter of comparable sales growth; it ended the period with 41,304 stores, and consolidated net revenues fell 1% to $9.3 billion because of the China transaction. Niccol said “Back to Starbucks” was built on the belief that an extraordinary cup of coffee, human connection, and customer experience win every day, that the quarter’s results proved it, and that there was more work to do.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16]

On September 22, 2026, the Starbucks board approved further actions under “Back to Starbucks,” closing about 1%, or roughly 250, of its North American coffeehouses that did not deliver the expected coffeehouse experience and financial performance, with restructuring charges of about $300 million, and cut its fiscal 2026 forecast for net new global store openings from 600–650 to about 440.⁠[17][17][17]

On October 8, 2026, the Financial TimesFinancial TimesThe Financial Times (FT) is a London-based English-language business and financial news organization, known for its salmon-pink newspaper and its motto “Without Fear and Without Favour.” It was owned successively by the British Pearson group and Japan’s Nikkei Inc., and today digital subscriptions are its main source of revenue.Open the full entry, citing people familiar with the matter, published a report that Starbucks had worked with advisers in recent months on a takeover proposal for Chipotle, saying the mega deal might never get off the ground; Starbucks declined to confirm that day, citing its policy of not commenting on rumors, and said its team was focused on executing “Back to Starbucks.” On October 12, a Starbucks spokesperson stated clearly that the company was not buying Chipotle.⁠[18][18][19][20]

Starbucks: Official website: https://www.starbucks.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]