UVU’s Woodbury School of Business welcomed Kathie Lindemann, former Starbucks and Panera executive, for the Reed and Christine Halladay Lecture Series. She shared insights on leadership, aligning personal values with workplace culture, and building meaningful careers grounded in authenticity.
Kathie is a seasoned executive with decades of leadership experience. She spent more than 20 years at Starbucks Coffee Company, where she held leadership roles in North American Retail, International Operations, Store Development, and Starbucks Foodservice. After Starbucks, she served as Senior Vice President of Retail Support Services for Panera, LLC. Beyond her corporate career, she has contributed her expertise to several boards, including Cambia Health Solutions, where she served from 2009 until earlier this year. She now serves on the Board of Advisors for Marble & Granite and the Board of Directors of Mother Brook Arts & Community Center.
In her lecture, Kathie spoke about the importance of knowing what drives you and just as importantly, what does not. While many skills can be learned, the strengths that come naturally, like building relationships or communicating effectively, are the ones that often set us apart. She illustrated this with a story about her niece, who was able to take skills from administrative work and use them to land a job in event planning. The story showed how transferable strengths can open unexpected doors.
Drawing from her own career, Kathie reflected on the two decades she spent at Starbucks, where the company’s values and people-first culture aligned perfectly with her own. She contrasted that experience with a later role at a thrift company. Although the pay was appealing, she soon realized the culture did not fit her values. After two years, she made the difficult decision to move on. That experience reinforced an important lesson: no matter how enticing an opportunity may look on the surface, it is not sustainable if it does not align with who you are at the core.
Kathie went on to share other highlights, including leadership roles with a Canadian tea company and later at Panera, which she described as another major milestone in her career.
Alongside her stories, Kathie offered practical advice for students preparing to launch their own careers. She encouraged everyone to use LinkedIn not just as a résumé, but as a way to tell their story, highlight competencies, and stay relevant. She spoke about the importance of “building visibility,” especially in remote work environments where it can be harder to stand out. She also encouraged students to get involved in nonprofits as a way to learn, grow, and make a difference, and to seek out mentorship in ways that are curious, genuine, and approachable rather than overly formal.
The lecture wrapped up with Kathie’s reminder that career success is not just about skills or job titles. It is about finding places where your personal values and the organization’s culture truly align.
The Woodbury School of Business extends its sincere thanks to Kathie Lindemann for sharing her insights and experiences with our UVU students. We wish her the very best in her continued work and contributions to the business community.
Want to catch every insight from this year’s Halladay Lecture Series?
Watch Kathie's full lecture below.
