James Donald is an American businessman who was the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

(CEO) of

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

from 2005 to 2008. He was preceded by Orin C. Smith, 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 was the chairman and chief executive officer of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017, and interim CEO from 2022 to 2023. Schultz owned the Seattle SuperS ...

. Donald also held various executive positions with

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 U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and started working as a grocery bagger in

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa'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 t ...

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

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. 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 in the United States and 23 other ...

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, 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 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, w ...

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 founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

. Donald joined

in 2002 as president of the North American division. Donald replaced Orin C. Smith 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 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: * Allen E. Paulson (1922–2000), American businessman * Andrew Paulson (1958–2017), American businessman * Barbara Paulson (1928–2023), American human computer * Bjørn 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 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 ( ) 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 over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. 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 Albertsons people

Early life and education

Career

See also

References