Rachel Gonzalez, a Starbucks Corp. general counsel, has been fired, the company announced yesterday in a legal filing.
Gonzalez, who earned over $5.3 million in cumulative salary from the coffee company last year, has been promoted to an advising role ahead of her exit on May 20.
An appeal for comment from Gonzalez was not returned.
The departure comes after the business announced last month that Howard Schultz, its chairman emeritus, would come back as interim CEO.
Starbucks, which is now fighting a unionization drive among its coffee shop employees, has also come under criticism from shareholders in recent years for giving anti-bias training to its staff.
The company is among major public enterprises that evaluate the diversity of its outside law firms.
its diversity initiatives include broadening its board of directors and supply chain, as well as tying CEO pay to diversity goals.
The company recently reversed its diversity policy, which warned to hold back up to 30% of fees from legal firms that failed to meet staffing targets.
Companies would have been obligated to assign different attorneys to work on 30% of new cases, with at least half of that segment going to Black attorneys.
Gonzalez's departure is unrelated to Starbucks' diversity initiatives, according to spokesperson Reggie Borges.
When asked last week for a report on the future of such initiatives in the wake of Coca-Cola's policy reversal, he refused to address Starbucks' diversity plan.
Gonzalez, who was hired by Starbucks last 2018, will get roughly $8 million in compensation from the company.
She will receive a cash payment in acknowledgment of equity grants valued at more than $4.8 million, along with over $2.3 million in severance compensation, according to a securities filing.
She will also receive a prorated incentive of $470,500 in fiscal 2022, as well as $20,000 in attorney expenses connected to the drafting of her separation contract, a copy of which is included in the filing.
Starbucks will give Gonzalez outplacement assistance where she will continue to work as a non-executive adviser with full benefits and 50% of her base salary until May 20.
She already sold about $9.1 million in Starbucks stock last year, according to securities records.
Interim general counsel Zabrina Jenkins, a 17-year Starbucks expert, signed the filing revealing Gonzalez's impending resignation.
Jenkins, who most recently served as the company's deputy general counsel, did not also respond to a request for information on the company's diversity initiatives.
