Howard Shultz
Born in 1952 and raised in a Brooklyn, NY, housing project, Howard Schultz knew that a football scholarship to Northern Michigan University was his only way out. When he graduated, he worked a variety of jobs before he became a manager for the U.S. Branch of Hammerplast (a coffemaker production company). In 1981 Schultz traveled to Seattle to check out a poular coffee bean store called Starbucks. This particular Starbucks had been buying many of the Hammerplast coffemakers he sold. He was very impressed by the owner and how determined he was to educate the general public about the wonders of coffee connosseurship. A year later, Schultz convinced the Starbucks owners to hire him as director of marketing and operations. 1982 on a trip to Italy, Schultz had a fabulous idea. He was inspired by the coffee bars that existed on practically every block of Italy's busy streets. He learned that these coffee shops were not only the best places to get great expressos, but served as a meeting place or public square. Unfortunately, the Seattle Starbucks owners were against Schultz's idea to serve coffee in the stores. They were adamant in the fact that they didn't want to get into the restaurant business. Howard Schultz became frustrated and quit. He started his own business called II Giornale that became very successful. The next year Schultz was able to buy the Starbucks company for $3.8 million.