Howard Schultz graduated from high school in 1917. From 1971 to 1975, he earned a B.A. in communications from Northern Michigan University (NMU).
After graduation, he worked for a year at a ski resort in Michigan. He then relocated to New York City to work as a Xerox salesperson. In 1979, he was appointed general manager of Hammarplast, a PAI Partners affiliate in the United States.
In 1981, he was in charge of the coffee machine manufacturer’s activities in the United States, and he paid a visit to the Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle (Washington) to complete their plastic cone filter orders.
Later that year, in 1982, he was appointed as the director of retail operations and marketing by Starbucks. Later that year, in 1985, he left Starbucks to open his own specialized coffee store, Il Giornale. He joined Starbucks in the 1980s.
The firm then expanded its operations and built a huge network of outlets, influencing coffee culture in the United States and throughout the world. Starbucks expanded to become the world’s largest coffee-house chain. Ori Smith took over as CEO in 2000.
When the company was hit by a financial crisis in 2008, Schultz was reassigned as CEO. He laid off a large number of staff and extended his firm into the Chinese market. Then, in 2018, he stepped down, and Kevin Johnson took over as CEO, with Myron Ullman as chairman.
He has four books to his credit. From 2001 until 2006, he was also the owner of the Seattle SuperCoins basketball club. Schultz publicly contemplated running for president of the United States as an independent candidate in 2012, 2016, and 2020, but he refused all three bids.
Schultz was rated the 209th richest person in the United States by Forbes in 2020, with a net worth of $4.3 billion.
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