Starbucks finance chief hands accounting role to Val Bauduin

Starbucks has moved another piece of its finance structure under tighter control, naming Val Bauduin principal accounting officer while Cathy Smith stays in the chief financial officer seat. The change carries no compensation adjustment, but in a turnaround, even a role that looks technical on paper can matter for who owns the numbers, who answers for execution, and how much confidence investors have in the reset.

Bauduin, 50, took the accounting role effective June 11 and continues as senior vice president of Corporate Finance and Development, reporting to Smith. Starbucks also kept Smith as the company’s principal financial officer. The company had already used Bauduin in a similar bridge role during the transition from Rachel Ruggeri, when Smith came in as CFO in March 2025 and Bauduin briefly served as interim CFO and principal accounting officer.

That kind of shuffling fits the broader management reset under Brian Niccol, who arrived in September 2024 and put the company on a “Back to Starbucks” turnaround path. In June 2025, Starbucks said it was making additional organizational changes to bring teams closer together, strengthen leadership accountability, and give managers more clarity and urgency. The accounting assignment for Bauduin reads like an extension of that thinking: fewer seams, clearer ownership, faster decisions.

The move lands as Starbucks tries to show that the turnaround is more than a slogan. At its January 29 Investor Day, the company pointed to progress in the Back to Starbucks plan, new coffeehouse and menu ideas, and a reimagined Starbucks Rewards program. That updated loyalty program is set to launch on March 10 and is built around three tiers, Green, Gold and Reserve, for 35.5 million active U.S. members.

The operating numbers suggest the reset is gaining traction, even if the pressure is not gone. Starbucks said U.S. comparable transaction growth returned in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 for the first time in eight quarters. In the second quarter, global comparable store sales rose 6.2 percent and revenue climbed 9 percent to $9.5 billion. North America revenue rose 6 percent, and U.S. comparable store sales increased 7.1 percent. Even so, inflation and labor investments have continued to weigh on margins, with operating margin down 170 basis points to 9.9 percent.

For workers on the floor, the signal is familiar: when a company is trying to turn itself around, the changes that seem smallest from the outside often tell you where the pressure points are. At Starbucks, finance is still being used to enforce discipline while the brand tries to turn better traffic into a durable comeback.