Who is rosalind brewer

So it really begins with the talent that you select and how you put those pieces together. I instill that in them, I stand up for them, I fight for them. And so we began to work together. It takes that. Joy Huang: And speaking of motivating people, I think this is a great segue into the second piece of your leadership, which is leading with the heart. And as an Asian woman, I could sometimes get a little tired of questions around diversity and equality, but at the same time, I do recognize the value of sharing my own experience and hope that it sparks conversation.

So in that spirit, I will love to revisit a moment that was particularly difficult for you early in the days.

Now I think many of us knew the facts of what happened later, but could you take us back to that moment?

So, you know when I got the news and it was interesting the way I began to pick up the news and the news was really hot on black social media. Once we realized just how bad it was, I did take off to Philadelphia and meet some of my partners there. The first thing that really startled me was that I was beginning to get the feed on the two gentlemen and I could see what they look like. So I knew right away. So first of all, it was two people arrested.

It quickly became African American males and then when I saw them, the first thing I thought about is, wow, this is not gonna be good.

My son was that exact same age. And so, I looked at what happened, and thought, this could happen to my son any day of the week. And, I was actually terrified, because those two gentlemen went to jail that night, and they stayed there overnight. And, we got into Philadelphia, created a war room and began to work on this situation. And the first thing was to make sure that these two gentlemen returned safely to their home.

And, we were engaged in that work. And then began to tell the story. And to admit, that Starbucks did something wrong here. And, our policies failed us. Our leadership failed us. This happened under, I felt like it happened under my watch. Part of my responsibility, and these two gentlemen, the police were called after 10 minutes of being in our stores.

And so I knew, and then I looked at the young woman who was running that store. And the interpretation of policies was taken for granted. We had work to do. So homelessness and all those things that are happening in our communities. But now people come into our stores for respite, right? And for warmth. So we admitted our faults. But we got around this issue. We knew we needed to train on anti bias training. All of those things really matter in terms of how you want to manage, but it was frightening.

Because I knew at any moment that could have been my son and quite frankly I got a call from my son. And you have got to fix it. This is all, this is everything you need to do right now. And when you hear your son talking to you, I picked up fear in his voice because I think he was saying mom fight for me. How did you think about balancing, having your own voice versus quote and quote, being the voice of the company? Rosalind Brewer: Right, right, so, I think timing is everything.

I think the company was open to my influence on this situation. But we all have to recognize when the company has not done its best work. And that was a very honest moment for all of us. And so I think there was immediate growing trust for me, they were getting to know me. But they knew that I was gonna take care of the company as well as take care of this situation because I felt like, if I could influence Starbucks and the visibility of this brand, could we absolutely influence other companies?

So all the training that we developed we did it open source so if any company called us and said, how did you do that? You closed your stores, who did your training? We developed our training here, take it, and it was expensive. No charge because this is a problem not only for Starbucks.

And eight police officers called for two gentlemen sitting in a store, is unacceptable. Joy Huang: Yeah, and so good to know that in that moment, it seems like those two things really aligned. And yet it was still very, a very emotional moment for you, right? So, how do you take care of yourself in moments like that? I took on a lot of the local media. And I called in, a lot of help for people to teach me how to have these conversations. So I tried to keep my fear down and turn it into energy.

It was sleepless. I mean, we did not go to bed several days. I remember one day we had to go over to the courthouse, and I would run out of clothes. So you just have to keep your head on straight. It was hard to focus. But I knew that we were doing the right thing. And I knew that we were living in a historical moment and we had a chance to either do this very right or do it very wrong. Joy Huang: Thank you so much for sharing that really personal and emotional side with us.

It is inspiring to see that that actually helps you become more effective as a leader and not to your detriment. Earlier that year, two young Black men were arrested while sitting in a Philadelphia Starbucks.

In sharing how she led through that incident, Brewer explained how important it was that she not only apologize on behalf of the company, but also act. Under her leadership, Starbucks took swift action, closing all stores across the US to conduct racial bias training. Starbucks also provided additional employee training in the months that followed and updated its store policies to welcome non-paying guests to sit in its stores and use its restrooms.

Brewer has used her leadership platform to inspire others to step up and speak out. She went even further during her TED Talk , highlighting the critical role that leaders must play: "You never know when you're going to be called upon.

Leadership is not designated by your title. In , in an interview on CNN , Brewer emphasized that under her leadership, Sam's Club was focused on working with suppliers that value diversity. She shared an example from a supplier meeting where the supplier only had white male representatives attending the meeting. Brewer explained that she used her position to share feedback and encourage the supplier to make a change.

But no amount of bullying has gotten in Brewer's way, and she's continued to spread the word about WHY companies should be seeking diverse perspectives, and demanding that her company and partners do the same. Many are eager to see how Brewer applies that belief to her upcoming leadership role at Walgreens. Watch this robot take over a fry station. Matt Damon: Clean water access frees up time for school. Facebook changes its company name to Meta amid controversies. Barbara Corcoran: The housing boom is not a bubble.

Former Xerox chief executive Ursula Burns became the first in before stepping down in Ex-Bed, Bath and Beyond chief executive Mary Winston's interim tenure only lasted about six months in before she was replaced by former Target chief merchandising officer Mark Tritton. Kenneth Frazier has served as head of Merck since Duckett and Brewer are among the paltry 3. Hyter, president and CEO of the Executive Leadership Council, a non-profit that works to increase the number of Black C-suite and boardroom executives.

Read More. Who is Rosalind Brewer? As a longtime executive in corporate America, she's spoken openly about the bias and challenges she's faced as one of very few Black women in the C-suite. Sometimes you're mistaken for kitchen help. Sometimes people assume you're in the wrong place, and all I can think in the back of my head is, 'No, you're in the wrong place.