Starbucks has named Sharon Rothstein its global chief marketing officer.

The role had previously been occupied by Annie Young Scrivner, who in May went on to become the chain's president of its Canada business. At the time, Starbucks said it was eliminating the global CMO post in order "to be more nimble and locally relevant, Starbucks has moved its marketing and category functions to the regional and market level." Starbucks did not respond immediately to calls for comment.

Ms. Rothstein will report to President-CEO Howard Schultz and will oversee marketing of the Starbucks brand, as well as the company's other brands including Seattle's Best Coffee, Evolution Fresh, La Boulange, Tazo and Teavana. "Sharon's forward-thinking brand sensibility and global cross-channel marketing expertise will continue to push us toward our aspiration of building one of the world's most relevant, trusted and enduring brands," said Mr. Schultz in a statement.

Ms. Rothstein was most recently senior VP-marketing at Sephora, where she oversaw the company's global brand positioning and also played a significant role in the development of the retailer's digital-marketing strategy. Before Sephora, she held senior marketing positions at Godiva, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Procter & Gamble.

At Sephora, Ms. Rothstein is being replaced by Julie Bornstein, who has been Sephora's senior VP-digital for five years.

It's unknown at this point whether the appointment of a new global CMO will affect any of the company's agency relationships. Its lead agency is Omnicom's BBDO. Given its size, Starbucks is a relatively small measured-media spender, according to Kantar Media. The company decreased its U.S. measured media to $86 million in 2012, down 21% from $110 million in 2011. Of that $86 million, $14.7 million was spent promoting coffee machine Verismo, one of Starbucks' biggest launches to date, in the fourth quarter.