Starbucks has appointed Anand Varadarajan, a technology leader of Indian descent, as its new executive vice president and chief technology officer (CTO), thus enhancing its executive team with an experienced professional from Amazon. Varadarajan will take over the role on January 19 and will be a part of the Executive Leadership Team at the company, being a direct report to CEO Brian Niccol.

He is taking over the position from Deb Hall Lefevre, who retired in September. Varadarajan has been at Amazon for almost 20 years, during which he was instrumental in the development of large-scale, customer-friendly technology platforms. He was last in charge of technology and supply chain for Amazon’s Worldwide Grocery Stores segment.

Starbucks announced that Varadarajan is going to make a big difference by bringing his playing field of extensive experience in creating and running secure and reliable systems that are able to support operational efficiency and customer-focused innovations across global markets.

Being one of the graduates from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Varadarajan has a civil engineering master’s degree from Purdue University and a computer science master’s degree from the University of Washington. The firm is looking forward to his appointment having a strong impact on the company’s technology initiatives and on the further solidification of its digital capabilities around the world.