He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953. An American businessman, he is president and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, a franchise with a unique business philosophy that has more than 10,000 locations around the world.
Howard Schultz was the oldest of three siblings in a lower-middle-class family. He studied at Canarsie High School and, thanks to a great financial effort from his parents, earned a degree in communications from Northern Michigan University (1975). Shortly after finishing his studies, he began his professional career as a trainee in the sales department at Xerox. Later, he joined Hammarplast, a company dedicated to plastic components and a subsidiary of the Swedish firm Perstorp, where he eventually became vice president.
Starbucks was founded in 1971 in the historic Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, as a small store selling imported coffees—a difficult business in a country unaccustomed to this product. The name, which derives from Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick, evoked the romantic aspect of the sea and seafaring tradition.
In 1982, Howard Schultz joined the company as marketing director, and that same year, during a trip to Italy, he discovered the famous espresso and, above all, the cultural framework that, with several centuries of history, surrounded coffee consumption in the Old Continent. His idea was to replicate it in the United States.
By radically transforming the Seattle store, Schultz then laid the foundation for what would soon become an empire. On the one hand, he incorporated products more in line with European tradition (cappuccinos, mochas, lattes, macchiatos), and on the other hand, he aimed to give the place a unique identity.
By 2007, Starbucks was one of the leading coffee roasters and suppliers in the world. It offered coffees from Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, had more than 10,000 locations worldwide (North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific), and employed over 140,000 people. Its revenue exceeded $9.4 billion. In 2008, the Starbucks logo was expected to reach new markets: Argentina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Hungary, India, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, and South Africa.
Starbucks has been recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the “100 best companies to work for” on eight occasions. In Spain, where in 2008 it employed more than 800 people, it was ranked as one of the 30 best companies to work for in the Great Place to Work 2008 report. In January 2008, Schultz—who had stepped down as CEO in 2000 to take on a background role as chairman—decided to return to a leadership position after the announcement that McDonald’s and DunkinCoffee would enter the sector.
Howard Schultz, whose personal fortune is estimated at 6 billion euros, is married to interior designer Sheri Kersch, his partner since 1978. They have two children. Although he owns several homes, his main residence is in Seattle. A basketball enthusiast, he was the owner of the Seattle SuperSonics. In 2001, he published the autobiographical book Pour Your Heart Into It.