Alicia Vermaele serves as a director on the Global Coffee, Social Impact and Sustainability team at Starbucks Coffee Company and is the executive director of The Starbucks Foundation. Alicia oversees the strategy and giving programs for The Starbucks Foundation, focused on enabling thriving communities and uplifting those affected by disaster. Through this work, the Foundation supports both domestic and international initiatives that span from our local hometown of Seattle all the way through to coffee, tea, and cocoa-growing regions around the world. While at Starbucks, she has built a team focused on early-stage social impact innovations that address key challenges faced by Starbucks employees and their communities at large, bridging deeper connections between the two to drive meaningful, long-term solutions as well as led the initial launch of the company’s commitment to hiring 10,000 refugees worldwide. Prior to relocating to Seattle, Alicia was a Deputy Director at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) where she planned and implemented CGI Latin America and CGI Middle East & Africa, convenings that engaged leaders from the private, public, and civil society sectors to make social impact commitments. Alicia is an accomplished musician and Berklee College of Music graduate, and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University.