Group 1 - Starbucks has appointed Anand Varadarajan as the new Chief Technology Officer, effective January 19 next year [1] - CEO Brian Niccol is driving technological reforms in stores to enhance labor efficiency [1] - Varadarajan succeeds Deb Hall Lefevre, who stepped down in September [1] Group 2 - Varadarajan has 19 years of experience at Amazon, where he was responsible for technology and supply chain operations in the global grocery business [1] - He has also worked at Oracle [1]