Howard Schultz

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Howard Schultz (b. July 19, 1953) is an American businessman and entrepreneur most widely known as chief global strategist and chairman of Starbucks. Howard Schultz co-founded Maveron, his investment group, in 1998 with Dan Levitan.

He grew up in the federally subsidized housing projects of the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He is the eldest of three children. He has a sister, Ronnie (b. 1956),and a brother Michael (b. 1961), who live in New York. His mother lives in New Jersey and his father, of whom he often speaks in interviews, is deceased. He currently lives in Seattle's Madison Park neighborhood with his wife and two children.

In 1975, he became the first of his family to graduate from college when he earned his bachelor's degree in communication from Northern Michigan University, which he attended on a football scholarship. He is a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon.

In 1982, he joined Seattle's Starbucks which sold only coffee beans at the time. Inspired by Italian espresso bars, he resolved to create a similar experience in the United States. Having been rebuffed by Starbucks management at the time, Schultz responded by leaving to start his own company, Il Giornale in 1985. Two years later the original Starbucks management decided to work on Peet's Coffee & Tea and sold its Starbucks unit to Schultz and Il Giornale.

Schultz renamed Il Giornale with the Starbucks name and aggressively expanded Starbucks' reach across the United States. It can be said that Starbucks popularized espresso drinks such as the cafe latte to many Americans who had previously only ever tasted freeze dried coffee. Schultz does not franchise his Starbucks enterprise. Schultz is the sole owner of every single Starbucks. He believes that, with the exception of McDonalds, a business that franchises cannot become as successful.

Schultz co-authored a book called Pour Your Heart into It that expounds on his life journey with Starbucks.

Schultz is also the former owner of the NBA's Seattle Supersonics. On July 17, 2006, it was announced that Schultz sold the team to a group of businessmen from Oklahoma City for $350 million. It is speculated that the new owners will move the team to Oklahoma City some time after the 2006-2007 NBA season^[1]. He also owned the WNBA's Seattle Storm, and is a significant stakeholder in Jamba Juice.

In 2006, Forbes magazine ranked Schultz as the 354th richest person in the United States, with a net worth of $1.1 billion dollars.

[edit] References

1. ^ seattletimes.nwsource.com. URL last accessed July 18, 2006.

Starbucks Corporation
Corporate Directors: Jim Donald | Barbara Bass | Howard Behar | Bill Bradley | Mellody Hobson | Olden Lee | Greg Maffei | Howard Schultz | James Shennan | Javier Teruel | Myron Ullman | Craig Weatherup
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