Keynote: Food Safety Begins and Ends with People

  • Making the case that food safety is everyone’s responsibility from sourcing right through to the consumer
  • Setting the tone using a top-down approach to generate grassroots support to build a culture of excellence
  • Talking about how individuals and teams all contribute to a shared story of success
  • Building food safety systems that are sustainable, self-improving, and focused on high performance outcomes
  • Illustrating that exceeding customer expectations can be the engine that drives positive change throughout an organization

Steven Graham
VP Food Safety & Quality
Starbucks

Steven Graham was appointed Vice President, Food Safety and Quality – Starbucks in November 2015.

Steve is responsible for leading the development of comprehensive food safety and quality strategies in support of the Starbucks business growth plans. His portfolio covers all products manufactured within the US and sourced from overseas for the Americas, including coffee roasting plant quality and all food and beverage ingredient suppliers. Steve also leads quality related to packaging, merchandise and furniture for all stores,

Prior to joining Starbucks, Steve worked at Campbell Soup Co in various roles throughout the global organization. After assignments at their World Headquarters and Campbell Canada, he and his family moved to Sydney, Australia where he was Vice President R&D/Quality for Asia Pacific. Immediately prior to Starbucks he led R&D and Quality for Pepperidge Farm based in Connecticut.

Steve’s proven strategic leadership and superior collaboration skills has enabled greater integration across a broad range of teams – driving superior results. His commitment to excellence is reflected in his focus to develop robust teams and valued individuals, resulting in strong employee engagement.

He earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Food Science from the University of Guelph Ontario Canada.