Maria Sebastian — Senior Vice President of Brand - Starbucks Europe, Middle East & Africa at Starbucks

Ms. Maria Sebastian has been Senior Vice President of Brand - Starbucks Europe, Middle East & Africa at Starbucks Corporation since November 23, 2017. Ms. Sebastian leads the marketing, category and R&D teams for EMEA, playing a key role in shaping the brand experience across 41 countries and more than 2,750 stores. She served as Senior Vice President for EMEA marketing and category since joining in June 2016 until December 2016. Ms. Sebastian served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Customer Engagement of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited until March 1, 2016. She served as Director of Sales and Marketing of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited. Based in the UK since the last six years, Ms. Sebastian joined Virgin Atlantic directly from American Airlines where she served as Managing Director, global advertising, promotions and product marketing. She had earlier served as vice-president and managing director sales and marketing Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), where she had the responsibility for income generation across 11 countries. She was based in Dallas where she served as Managing Director of sales planning and analysis for passenger sales. During the early part of her career, she has served American Airlines in revenue management. She holds extensive experience leading sales teams to deliver earnings across all channels. She was named one of the Most Compelling Women in Travel and has also been recognized as a key talent by several U.S. Hispanic business publications and numerous U.K. marketing publications. She serves on the board of British American Business, the advisory board of the National Theatre in the U.K., and the European Regional Advisory Board of the Fuqua School of Business. Ms. Sebastian holds a bachelor's degree from Tulane University and an MBA from Duke University-Fuqua School of Business.