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A mix of emotions flooded Shavondelia Brown when she put the phone down. The conversation with the recruiter went well. A coffee company based in the Pacific Northwest wanted to hire her to serve as corporate counsel on its real estate team, and the job seemed like a perfect fit, but Brown doesn’t drink coffee and had never set foot into Seattle.
It was 2004. The company had just opened manufacturing centers and retail stores in Amsterdam, Chile, Cyprus, Peru, Turkey, and France to bring its worldwide total to 8,569 locations.
After nearly two decades at Starbucks, she’s leading a team of attorneys who support store development and corporate real estate for one of the most well-known, growth-focused companies in the world.
Brown has had a front-row seat to that growth; today, Starbucks has more than 38,000 locations in eighty countries. “I knew I would be a part of exponential growth because that was made clear in my initial interview, but the experience has surpassed anything I could have imagined,” she emphasizes.
“My team and I have been purposeful about finding additional ways to contribute. Having people see what we do raises the profile of our team as we help the company reach its goals.”
Shavondelia Brown
The growth was about more than real estate. While Brown was busy helping the company open a head-spinning total of 1,200 stores per year, others on her team and their counterparts in the organization increased everything from product selection to headcount. In addition to physical stores, the real estate legal team at Starbucks is responsible for offices, roasting and manufacturing plants, aviation facilities, and other areas of the company that fuel its operations. Today, Brown’s team also manages alcohol licensing and compliance while providing support to other areas of the business.
Through it all, Brown has kept her love of real estate while feeding another passion for continuous learning. “Our business, just like our beverages, is customizable in many ways, so there’s always something to think about and learn,” she says.
A lot has changed at Starbucks. The siren logo was redone to celebrate its fortieth anniversary in 2011, and CEO Howard Schultz left the company in 2018 and returned from April 2022 to March 2023 as interim CEO. But a culture of constant growth and relentless innovation remains one of the constants. Brown has emerged as one of the company’s trusted leaders as she’s navigated the ups and downs of boom times, a global pandemic, and everything in between.
“My team and I have been purposeful about finding additional ways to contribute. Having people see what we do raises the profile of our team as we help the company reach its goals,” she says. Brown’s steady hand, consistent presence, and strategic collaboration have elevated her team and earned her the reputation as a go-to partner for all things real estate.
Starbucks faces an important year in 2024. In November 2023, its leaders hosted an investor forum in which new CEO Laxman Narasimhan reinforced a 2022 reinvention plan that in part calls for cost cutting, growth, and innovation. Average weekly sales are beating pre-pandemic levels by double digits, leading Narasimhan to push for new investment in real estate, equipment, and store operations. Brown says store renovations and new store formats are just two parts of the plan—Starbucks is also doubling down on its commitment to ambitious environmental and social impact goals.
“Our business, just like our drinks, is customized in many ways, so there’s always something to think about and learn.”
Shavondelia Brown
Nineteen years ago, Brown worked for one of the few Black woman general counsels in America. Today, the company is creating diversity among its leaders by tying compensation to the building of inclusive and diverse teams. Brown is committed to the cause, and the company has a supplier diversity goal of increasing annual spend with diverse suppliers from $882 million in fiscal year 2022 to $1.5 billion by 2030.
Nearly twenty years after she set foot in a Starbucks, Shavondelia Brown has become a fixture at the famed Starbucks Center corporate office. Thankfully, global expansion has given her plenty of options. Starbucks, after all, owns Teavana and has nearly fifty noncoffee options. While coffee and a core lineup account for 85 percent of sales, product innovation has been part of the company’s growth story. Starbucks has announced plans to further increase innovation by offering all-day breakfast and all-day snacks. New things are coming, and Brown is ready to help Starbucks add seventeen thousand new stores over the next six years.
Kane Russell Coleman Logan PC:
“Shavondelia is an accomplished, creative, and effective lawyer and legal counselor, who excels in her role representing Starbucks interests and providing leadership to us. We are proud to partner with and support Shavondelia on her journey to the very top of our profession.”
—Margaret M. Jordan, Director
