Starbucks never clubbed the chair and CEO position before and only did it for Niccols because he negotiated the same deal at Chipotle after he was poached from

Starbucks never clubbed the chair and CEO position before and only did it for Niccols because he negotiated the same deal at Chipotle after he was poached from Taco Bell. Also, the CorpGov blog (love it btw - highly recommend RSSing it) also shows the same trend over the past several years - that companies increasingly split the CEO position and Chair position. And as an investor, I tend to demand that unless the CEO is an absolute rainmaker due to conflict of interest, and Sbux's closest competitors (Dunkin's and RBI) do the same split.