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Starbucks, one of the most admired companies in the world and a leader in diversity and inclusion, will be the Host Partner of the 2019 AWESOME Symposium. Starbucks joins Founding Partner DSC Logistics and other sponsors in inviting leading women in supply chain to participate in discussions, relationship building, learning and collaboration.
Invitations will be sent to leaders in the AWESOME community, and registration will open in December with a brief early registration period offering a significant saving on the registration fee.
“Starbucks is thrilled and I am personally excited to host the 7th Annual AWESOME Symposium in May,” said Hans Melotte, Executive Vice President, Starbucks Global Supply Chain. “Starbucks is deeply committed to gender diversity. We have a strong representation of women leaders in supply chain (and, indeed, across Starbucks). Currently, 47 percent of our vp+ supply chain leaders in North America are women. This, coupled with who we are and what we stand for as a company, make us feel honored and privileged to host this signature event.”
The May 1-3 event hosted by Starbucks in Seattle will be AWESOME’s seventh annual Symposium since the organization was founded in 2013 to advance women’s supply chain leadership. Previous Host Partners include Johnson & Johnson, NIKE, Inc., and JDA Software.
In 2018, Starbucks was #5 on Fortune‘s ranking of the world’s Most Admired Companies, the 16th year in a row Starbucks has been named to the list. In addition, for the 12th consecutive year, Starbucks was named in February as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute. Among Starbucks diversity initiatives, the company has achieved 100% gender pay equity at all U.S. locations and committed to doing the same globally.
Announcing in 2015 that the company would increase the female and minority representation of senior leadership by 50%, Starbucks reached that goal two years early and has now pledged to have 50% women at the senior leadership level by 2020.
As a leader in multiple areas of corporate responsibility, Starbucks has hired more than 21,000 veterans. The company also is undertaking a multi-year investment and partnership strategy aimed at empowering at least 250,000 women and families in coffee, tea and cocoa growing communities globally by 2025.
As reported by AWESOME in October, Starbucks is partnering with McDonald’s and others to develop a more environmentally-friendly coffee cup.
According to Heather Sheehan, Executive Director of AWESOME, “We are already working with Starbucks to make this an exciting and unforgettable experience for the supply chain executives who join us there. We’ll have the opportunity to learn more about Starbucks and more about Seattle while we continue important work on advancing women as leaders in supply chain.”