Howard Schultz

Lore & Background

Howard D. Schultz was born on July 19, 1953, to Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Fred and Elaine Schultz, in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a truck driver and his mother a receptionist. He grew up in the Canarsie public housing projects; Schultz describes his family as poor, though childhood contemporaries recall a middle-class upbringing. He graduated from Canarsie High School in 1971 and earned a B.A. in communications from Northern Michigan University in 1975, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and played football until an injury ended his athletic scholarship.

Schultz began his career as a salesman for Xerox in 1976, then worked for a Swedish kitchenware manufacturer before joining Starbucks in 1982 as director of retail operations and marketing. After a trip to Milan in 1983, he tried to persuade Starbucks' owners to offer espresso beverages; when they declined, he left in 1985 to open his own coffee shop, Il Giornale. He raised $400,000 from investors, including $150,000 from Starbucks, and opened the first store in 1986. In 1987, Schultz and Il Giornale bought Starbucks for $3.8 million, rebranded the chain, and expanded it across the U.S. He took the company public in 1992 with a $273 million valuation, doubling the store count. Schultz stepped down as CEO in 2000 but returned in 2008 during the financial crisis, firing executives, closing hundreds of stores, and enforcing fair trade standards. He stepped down again in 2017, then served as interim CEO from 2022 to 2023.

Reader's Guide

Howard Schultz's significance lies in his role as the architect of Starbucks' global expansion and its influence on coffee culture. Under his leadership, Starbucks grew from a small Seattle roaster into the world's largest coffee-house chain, a transformation achieved through aggressive store openings, large-scale distribution deals, and a public offering in 1992. He is often described as the 'Ray Kroc of his generation' for his impact on the coffee industry. Schultz's return as CEO during the 2008 financial crisis was marked by mass layoffs, store closures, and a renewed focus on fair trade sourcing, which helped stabilize the company. His expansion into Chinese markets is credited with reconciling China's tea culture with coffee consumption. Schultz also wrote four books on business and is an outspoken neoliberal who considered independent runs for U.S. president in 2012, 2016, and 2020 but declined each time. His Schultz Family Foundation supports military veterans and youth employment. With a net worth of $4.3 billion as of October 2020, he was ranked the 209th-richest person in the U.S. by Forbes.

Did You Know?

• Inspired by Italian espresso culture, Schultz opened his first coffee shop, Il Giornale, in 1986.
• Of the 242 investors Schultz approached for his coffee venture, 217 rejected his idea.
• Schultz took a one-dollar annual salary at Starbucks in 2008 when he returned as CEO.