McClure Manages a Cup of Complications
On the morning of April 12, 2005, Elise McClure, Class of '81, awoke to find herself quoted in a front page article of the Wall Street Journal.
As Vice President of Tax and Customs for the Starbucks Corp. in Seattle, McClure had known an article was in the works. She had been interviewed about the coffee giant's first-time lobbying effort in Washington, D.C. Starbucks was fighting a change in the tax code that would reclassify "coffee roasting" from "manufacturing" to the same category as "fast food." The seemingly innocuous revision could cost Starbucks millions.
An email from a friend alerted McClure that the article had landed on the front page and that the world's business spotlight was suddenly upon her. At work, it was the talk of the office. She picked up a copy and read:
Elise McClure, the company's tax and customs vice president, knew from her experience at an accounting firm that a good lobbying operation could be valuable. But Starbucks executives "just didn't have a history" of openly advocating for their own issues in a public way, she says. "We just thought we were already doing the right things and that was good enough," she recalls.
McClure was relieved. It was a good story, and she was quoted accurately.
"I was nervous when they were interviewing me," she said. "The reporter asked me a lot of questions, but you just never know what they're going to write or how it is going to sound."
Complications
McClure's pre-publication jitters arose from her inability to predict the tone or fallout of the Journal article. Global publicity can have unforeseen complications, and McClure has spent her career mastering and managing complicated business situations.
She began at OSU with a degree in finance. In 1981, she enrolled at Willamette University's law school and engaged the vagaries of American jurisprudence. In 1984, with law degree in hand, she went to work for the "Big 8" accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand (now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers).
After four years in Coopers' Seattle office, she moved to headquarters in New York. With a solid foundation in the intricacies of corporate tax - and business lobbying, as the Journal article pointed out - she returned to Seattle in '92 to become tax manager for a small, northwest coffee vendor - Starbucks.
"Starbucks had just gone public," she recalled. "We had 150 stores in five states and Canada and did $100 million in sales. We used to plan for the day when we would have 500 stores in 10 different states. I didn't anticipate Starbucks would take off like it has, but our founder had a vision."
Today there are 11,000 stores, a Starbucks in every state - and seemingly every town - and 35 foreign countries. Revenues last year exceeded $6 billion.
McClure is responsible for all worldwide income, sales and excise taxes. As if that weren't enough, Starbucks added international customs - import and export compliance and planning - to her duties. The experience has taught her that it's not such a small world after all.
Little Laws, Big Challenges
For example, in some states with a sales tax, there is no tax on coffee "to go." However, if the coffee will be consumed at Starbucks, then it must be taxed.
"We spend an enormous amount of time trying to figure out how to efficiently administer things like that," McClure explained. "It is a simple example, but it can be very significant from a dollar standpoint. In the international arena, we focus on aligning business operations with efficient tax structures."
In her free time, McClure serves on the Board of "Treehouse," a Seattle-area advocacy and support group for foster children. She also is very active with the OSU Foundation, serving on the Board of Trustees for three years and chairing the Finance Committee since last year. She visits Corvallis at least three times a year.
Ultimate Complication
Years of experience with Byzantine procedures and bizarre requirements prepared McClure for one of the most complex undertakings of all - international adoption and single motherhood. In Feb. 2004 she adopted a daughter, Lauren, from Sakhalin Island, off the east coast of Russia. She credits a solid team at the Starbucks tax office and supportive parents, John, '50, and Ferol McClure, in Portland for supporting her during the adoption process and stepping in when parenting complications arise.
"Parenting takes a lot of time," she said. "It's a matter of organization and prioritization. It is pretty stressful because I can't spend nearly the number of hours in the office that I used to. But I'm happy with what I have achieved, and now I can't imagine my life without Lauren."
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