Starbucks general counsel Paula Boggs may have found an even more caffeinated work environment for her next job. This week, the coffee company GC announced that she is retiring this spring in order to join President Obama’s 2012 re-election team.
According to a report in The Seattle Times, starting in June “Boggs will be based in Seattle and Santa Fe and work for the campaign in communities across the country.”
In a statement released by Starbucks, Boggs’ new role is described as “volunteering as an advocate for the campaign,” and follows work she has done for the Obama Administration since 2010, when she was appointed to “the White House Council for Community Solutions, whose work is focused on identifying, highlighting, and enabling innovative community solutions to youth unemployment.”
The Times notes that Boggs’ government service stretches back as far as the Reagan years: “Her legal career began in 1984 when she was a U.S. Army officer assigned to the Pentagon. She was a staff attorney for the White House before leaving the service in 1988, after which she served as assistant U.S. attorney in the Western district of Washington prosecuting fraud and regulatory crimes.”
Boggs has been part of the Starbucks legal department since 2002. In 2009, NASDAQ chose her for its Top General Counsel honors.
In addition to her years of high-level legal work, Boggs is also known for her singing and songwriting. She leads the Paula Boggs Band and is a member of the National Acadamy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
The company’s statement quotes Howard Schultz, the coffee giant’s CEO and chairman, saying of Boggs:
Paula is an exemplary leader and has built a world-class legal team. I am personally grateful for her friendship, counsel and dedication to and passion for her fellow partners (employees) and the communities Starbucks serves around the world. She is leaving Starbucks in a better place than when she arrived, we wish Paula the very best and we will miss her.
