Howard Schultz is an American businessman. He was formerly the CEO of Starbucks, now executive chairman, and a former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics.

Starbucks's Howard Schultz grew up in a housing complex for the poor. Schultz ended up winning a football scholarship to the University of Northern Michigan and went to work for Xerox after graduation. He then took over a coffee shop called Starbucks, which at the time had only 60 shops. Schultz became the company's CEO in 1987 and grew the coffee chain to more than 16,000 outlets worldwide.

After the economy suffered so greatly in 2008, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz began to do what almost every other CEO in America was doing—cutting expenses and getting rid of nonperforming locations. He then did something that most CEOs did not do: he traveled all over the country to meet with Starbucks patrons. Long after the average worker had gone home, billionaire Schultz was visiting his stores and meeting with coffee drinkers to find out how Starbucks could better satisfy customers.