Former Microsoft exec joins Coinstar

BELLEVUE, Wash. – Former Microsoft executive James S. Pinckney has joined Coinstar as its new corporate leader of strategy and operations, a newly created position.



The move comes a week and a half after the provider of automated retail solutions named J. Scott Di Valerio as its new CEO.



Pinckney has more than 25 years of international general management, strategy and sales experience from Lenovo, Microsoft Corp., The Sabre Group and Hitachi Data Systems Corp.



In his new role, Pinckney will manage strategy, supply chain and facilities, customer support and deployment and communications functions. As a member of the executive team, he will report to Di Valerio, who is still the company's CFO until April 1.



"Coinstar has nearly tripled its revenue in the past three years and continues to grow as we expand our offerings and focus on our automated retail strategy," said Di Valerio. "We brought James on board to help drive strategic functions in this next phase of our growth. He is a proven leader with an exceptional ability to develop effective strategies and lead teams through successful execution, and we look forward to his contributions here at Coinstar."



Pinckney's previous roles included VP of North America transaction business at Lenovo where he led a $1 billion revenue-generating business unit that delivered product and channel marketing expertise, including strategy and execution.



Prior to Lenovo, Pinckney held a number of roles at Microsoft throughout a period of nine years. His last position was as VP of worldwide field sales, original equipment manufacturer division, where he led a sales and business development team responsible for software sales with local OEM partners around the world.



While at The Sabre Group, Pinckney was vp of airline solutions responsible for sales and the delivery of consulting and professional services to regional airlines in the United States, Canada and Latin America.



Pinckney also spent six years with Hitachi Data Systems Corp., serving as VP of product services and support, central region, providing software and hardware consulting and support services to Fortune 500 companies.