James Donald is an American businessman who served as the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO) of the Starbucks Coffee Corporation from 2005 to 2008. He was preceded by

Orin C. Smith Orin C. Smith (June 26, 1942 – March 1, 2018) was an American businessman who served as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Starbucks Corporation from 2000 to 2005. He joined Starbucks as vice president and chief financial officer i ...

, who led the company since 2000, and was succeeded by the coffeehouse's second president,

Howard Schultz Howard D. Schultz (born July 19, 1953) is an American businessman and author who served as both chairman and CEO of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017, and as interim CEO since 2022. Schultz also owned the Seattle SuperSonics basket ...

. Donald also served in various executive positions

Albertsons Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho. With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-large ...

Early life and education

Donald grew up in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and started working as a grocery bagger in

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

when he was 16. Donald graduated with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from American Century University in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. From 1976 to 1991, he held several managerial positions with

. While working at Albertsons, Donald pursued his undergraduate degree. It took 15 years for Donald to finish his degree because he was constantly moved to revamp distressed stores for Albertsons.

Career

In 1991, he was recruited by Sam Walton to join Walmart to lead the development of its grocery business and Superstore concept.

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

was experimenting with selling groceries at six stores but hadn't figured out how to expand the concept. Donald revamped the company's dysfunctional distribution center, which hadn't been designed for grocery storage. By the time he left three years later, Walmart had added grocery sales in 140 more stores. Donald left Walmart for Safeway in 1994, serving as senior vice president of its 130-store eastern division until 1996. At Safeway Donald was responsible for a $2.5 billion business with more than 10,000 employees. He succeeded in reversing Safeway's four-year trend of declining same-store sales. Donald's first CEO role was at

Pathmark Stores Pathmark is a supermarket brand owned by Allegiance Retail Services, a retailers’ cooperative based in Iselin, New Jersey, USA. Pathmark currently has one location in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, which it has operated since 2019. From ...

from 1996 to 2002. He took over Pathmark while the store chain was struggling with debt. Donald filed for a prepackaged

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

after a deal to sell the company failed. This strategy allowed him to "slough off debt and reemerge with a public company," according to an article published by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

. Donald joined

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

in 2002 as president of the North American division. Donald replaced

as CEO on April 1, 2005. In January 2008, Donald was replaced by

. During his tenure, Starbucks enjoyed record growth, including five straight years of 20%+ annual earnings increases. In 2009, in an effort to reverse its ailing fortunes,

Haggen Food & Pharmacy Haggen Food & Pharmacy is a grocery retailer in Washington State. Haggen is headquartered in Bellingham, Washington, where it started in 1933 when Ben Haggen, Dorothy Haggen, and Doug Clark opened the first store on Bay Street in Bellingham. Fo ...

named Donald president and CEO. Within two years Haggen was sold to Comvest Group. The new owners replaced Donald as CEO. In February 2012, Donald was named CEO of Extended Stay Hotels by Blackstone Group LP (BX), Centerbridge Partners LP and

Paulson & Co People with the name Paulson or its variant spellings include: * Albert Paulsen (1925–2004), Ecuadorian-American actor * Allen E. Paulson (1922–2000), American businessman * Andrew Paulson (1958–2017), American businessman * Barbara Paulson ...

., investment companies which had bought the hotel chain out of bankruptcy. Less than a year later, the company was transformed from an organization that was weeks away from running out of cash into the business that was named America's Most Improved hotel brand. Donald left Extended Stay in December, 2015. Investors Blackstone, Centerbridge, and Paulson were able to almost triple their investment when Extended Stay America Inc. went public in 2013. He was CEO of

Extended Stay America Extended Stay America, Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the operator of an economy apartment hotel chain in the United States and Canada. As of December 31, 2019, the company owned and operated 557 hotel properties consisting ...

from 2012 to 2015 Donald's first stint with

was from 1976 until 1991. During that time he was head of operations in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. After 27 years Donald returned to Albertsons on March 5, 2018 as president and COO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donald, Jim Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American chief executives of food industry companies Businesspeople in coffee Starbucks people

Early life and education

Career

See also

References