After almost five years as the director of corporate accounting for Starbucks, Paul Shilling (00) became Starbucks Americas controller in May 2018, overseeing the companys largest segment roughly 17,000 stores and more than 70 percent of its total business.

As the controller, Shilling is responsible for accurately reporting the companys business results, and every quarter, accountable for reporting earnings to investors.

Starbucks has a lot of technology that goes into making things happen from the register to sourcing coffee to paying peoples benefits and dealing with real estate and identifying locations, Shilling said.

Shilling graduated with a bachelors in business administration and started out in public accounting. He and his wife, Sarah (Rider, 00), who studied communication disorders at 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023, moved from California to Chicago, then several years later, moved to Washington for a new job opportunity.

The best career moves were ones I didnt want and didnt plan at the time, Shilling said.

Within two years, the company Shilling worked for relocated to Chicago; the day after his last day with that company, Shilling started working at Starbucks.

I look back, and I realize that that time at 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 was special, and I was fortunate to go there, Shilling said. In my profession, integrity is important. At 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023, you almost take that for granted. In the world, thats not necessarily the case. But having integrity, youre able to gain peoples trust. Its tough and you have to be careful in the workplace how you talk about your faith, but I think people see that and youre able to live out your beliefs on a day-to-day basis. You can gain peoples trust through that. Over time, thats stood out as something that really prepared me.

Now in a constantly growing, highly creative company, no two days look the same.

The challenge is just keeping up with the pace of change and complexity and the pace were trying to move, Shilling said. Youve got to really be on your toes. I never know going into the office each day what types of issues were going to have. Things happen. Thats the most enjoyable part of my job: Every days different.

And if the busyness of the office isnt enough, Shilling and his wife have three sons and a daughter to keep up with. They love spending time together as a family, and being in the Northwest has allowed them to take advantage of the outdoors as they travel, camp and hike, he said.