Howard D Schultz was born on July 19,1953 and is an American businessman and author who served as the chairman and chief executive officer of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017, and as interim CEO from 2022 to 2023.
82 Facts About Howard Schultz
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Howard Schultz later left and opened Il Giornale, a specialty coffeeshop that merged with Starbucks during the late 1980s.
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Howard Schultz took the company public in 1992 and used a $271 million valuation to double their store count in a series of highly publicized coffee wars.
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Howard Schultz stepped down as CEO in 2000, succeeded by Orin Smith.
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Howard Schultz orchestrated multiple acquisitions of American and Chinese beverage companies, introduced a national loyalty program, and enforced fair trade standards.
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Howard Schultz was succeeded by Kevin Johnson as CEO in April 2017 and Myron Ullman as chairman in June 2018.
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Howard Schultz publicly considered a candidacy in the 2012,2016, and 2020 US presidential elections as an independent candidate.
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Howard Schultz was named the 209th-richest person in the US by Forbes with a net worth of $4.3 billion.
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Howard Schultz started the Howard Schultz Family Foundation to help military veterans and fight youth unemployment.
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On March 16,2022, Starbucks announced that CEO Kevin Johnson was retiring, and that Howard Schultz would take over as interim CEO until Laxman Narasimhan took over as CEO in April 2023.
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On March 20,2023, Howard Schultz announced that he would be stepping down early from the position.
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Howard D Schultz was born on July 19,1953, to Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Fred and Elaine Schultz, in Brooklyn, New York.
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Howard Schultz spent his time after school at the Boys Club of New York.
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Howard Schultz then took up a job in New York City as a salesman for Xerox, and was recruited by Swedish kitchenware manufacturer PAI Partners in 1979 to be general manager of its US subsidiary, Hammarplast.
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At Hammarplast, Howard Schultz was responsible for the coffee machine manufacturer's US operations, and in 1981 he visited the Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle, Washington to fill their plastic cone filter orders.
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In 1982, at age 29, Howard Schultz was hired at Starbucks as the director of retail operations and marketing.
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Howard Schultz was exposed to coffee in Italy on a buying trip to Milan, Italy in 1983.
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Howard Schultz left Starbucks in 1985 to open a store of his own.
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Howard Schultz visited over 500 espresso bars in Milan and, with him assuming most of the risk associated with introducing espresso to the American market, Starbucks invested $150,000 in the new venture, with Baldwin receiving a place on its board and Bowker offering unofficial assistance.
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Howard Schultz rebranded Il Giornale with the Starbucks name, and expanded its reach across the United States.
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Howard Schultz did not believe in franchising, and made a point of having Starbucks retain ownership of every domestic outlet.
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Howard Schultz's positioning of Starbucks as a social hub is widely seen as introducing the second wave of coffee culture in the US, particularly in Seattle.
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On June 1,2000, Howard Schultz stepped down as CEO of Starbucks, moving to the new position of chief global strategist to help the company expand internationally.
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Howard Schultz was succeeded by Orin Smith, who worked with Schultz as his chief financial officer during the 1990s.
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On January 7,2008, after an eight-year hiatus, Howard Schultz returned as CEO of Starbucks during the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
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Howard Schultz succeeded Jim Donald who took over from Smith in 2005.
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Howard Schultz led a mass-firing of executives, closed down hundreds of stores, and temporarily closed all US locations to retrain employees in making espresso.
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Howard Schultz redoubled and enforced the firm's fair trade and ethical source policies for their coffee bean supply-chain in Africa and other coffee-producing countries.
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Howard Schultz arranged the appointment of the coffeehouse's first chief technology officer.
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Howard Schultz again stepped down as CEO in December 2016, assuming the position of executive chairman.
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From 2008 to 2017, Howard Schultz oversaw nearly $100 billion added to the company's market capitalization.
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On June 4,2018, Howard Schultz announced that he would retire from active management of Starbucks, after 37 years, as he was considering amongst other options a campaign for US president.
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On March 20,2023, two weeks before he was projected to turn the leadership of the company over to incoming CEO Laxman Narasimhan, Howard Schultz stepped down as interim CEO of Starbucks.
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Howard Schultz appeared before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on March 29,2023.
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Howard Schultz feuded with player Gary Payton, feeling that Payton disrespected him and the team by not showing up to the first day of training camp in 2002.
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Ten years later, in 2019, Howard Schultz accepted full responsibility for the sale.
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Howard Schultz has written four books, three of which incorporate business memoir-style narratives.
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Howard Schultz is an outspoken neoliberal, centrist, technocratic, and political independent.
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Howard Schultz hosted a fundraiser in his Seattle home for John Edwards during the 2008 presidential election cycle, eventually donating to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
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Howard Schultz donated to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign twice, once on June 30,2007, for $2,300, and again on October 24,2008, for $2,300.
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Howard Schultz endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election.
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Howard Schultz has been taking anti-union actions at Starbucks since the late 1980s.
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In 2022, as union organizing campaigns started to form at Starbucks, and gain victories, Howard Schultz held a town hall meeting as he returned to the company as interim CEO.
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One employee who had been working to organize Starbucks workers in Arizona was fired just one hour after Howard Schultz had finished speaking at his town hall.
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On March 29,2023 Howard Schultz testified before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.
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Howard Schultz responded that he would not be following this ruling as he believed that Starbucks had not broken the law.
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Howard Schultz has opposed the United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
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Howard Schultz has openly criticized the 2018 Green New Deal for being economically unrealistic.
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In December 2012 Howard Schultz penned an open letter to various newspapers about an upcoming initiative at Starbucks involving partisan gridlock in Washington.
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Howard Schultz is averse to debt and, politically, is a deficit hawk.
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In 2008, Howard Schultz doubled the amount of fair trade coffee Starbucks bought.
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Howard Schultz committed to an agreement that all 747 stores in Britain would be certified fair trade by year-end.
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Howard Schultz has spoken against unionization by employees within his company.
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Howard Schultz described the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act as insufficient, and criticized the Act's Paycheck Protection Program for being a temporary solution.
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Howard Schultz said he supported "comprehensive tax reform" in January 2019.
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Howard Schultz opposed Donald Trump's passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which lowered high-income and corporate taxes.
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Howard Schultz is against lowering taxes for large corporations, favoring tax cuts for middle-market and small businesses.
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Howard Schultz has vocally criticized Republican-led efforts to repeal the ACA as uncooperative.
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Howard Schultz has supported a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who had entered the US as children.
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Howard Schultz called for greater border security, but vocally opposed President Donald Trump's proposal of a border wall.
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In 2017, Howard Schultz got into a highly publicized argument with President Trump after he instructed Starbucks to disregard an executive order barring Syrian refugees into the country.
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In 2014, Howard Schultz authored his first non-business book, For Love of Country: What Our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship, Heroism, and Sacrifice, co-written with Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
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In 2012, Howard Schultz had Starbucks express support for Washington state's Referendum 74, which legalized same-sex marriage in that state.
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Howard Schultz opposed Seattle's ordinance to raise the local minimum wage to $15, which at the time was the highest in the nation.
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Howard Schultz is seen as a foreign policy "liberal hawk", favoring socially liberal politics domestically and aggressive, interventionist policies abroad.
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At the start of the 2012 United States presidential election Howard Schultz's name was floated as a potential Democratic candidate.
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However, Howard Schultz "batted down" these reports days later and confirmed that he was not running for political office.
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Howard Schultz continued to publicly bemoan the political climate at the time, saying he was "not optimistic about the leadership" of the US on national television.
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Howard Schultz hired Steve Schmidt and Bill Burton, two political consultants, to assess his candidacy.
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Howard Schultz was reportedly willing to spend $300 to $500 million on the 2020 election.
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Howard Schultz's proposed independent candidacy was widely condemned by Democrats who argued that Howard Schultz's third-party candidacy would help to re-elect President Trump by splitting the vote of those opposed to the president.
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Political scientist Larry Sabato said that Howard Schultz's candidacy was likely to benefit Trump.
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Howard Schultz had promised to release all of his tax returns if elected.
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However, on September 14,2020, Howard Schultz endorsed Biden, and called on Americans to vote for Biden "for the future of our republic".
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In 1982, Howard Schultz married Sheri Kersch, with whom he has two children.
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Howard Schultz's son, Jordan, is a sports analyst and NFL insider currently working for ESPN.
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Howard Schultz is a noted coffee aficionado, reportedly drinking four to five cups of coffee every day.
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Howard Schultz was named the 209th-richest person in the US in October 2020 by Forbes with a net worth of $4.3 billion.
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In 1998, Howard Schultz established venture capital firm Maveron with investment banker Dan Levitan.
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In 1998, Howard Schultz received the 'Israel 50th Anniversary Tribute Award'.
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Howard Schultz was named Fortune magazine's 2011 "Businessperson of the Year" for his initiatives in the economy and job market.
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Howard Schultz spoke at the 2017 Arizona State University commencement ceremony and was presented with an honorary Doctor of humane letters degree.