The move comes two weeks after Staples offered to buy Office Depot owner ODP Corp's consumer business for $1 billion, in its latest effort to acquire its rival's assets.
Staples, which is owned by buyout firm Sycamore Partners, said it has begun a search for a permanent chief executive officer.
Douglas, previously an executive at Coca Cola, joined the company as CEO in 2018 and will hand over to Lederer, who has been a senior adviser at Sycamore since 2017, later this week.
Staples declined to comment further on the reason for Douglas' departure.
(Reporting by Mehr Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)