Some have already questioned whether he would pursue his own presidential run. Myron E. Ullman, former chairman and CEO of J. Penney , was named chair, while Mellody Hobson, president and director of Chicago-based investment management firm Ariel Investments, will be named vice chair. Schultz, who now will become its chairman emeritus, served as the company's chief executive from to , stepping down to focus on the company's global strategy. He remained on as chairman of the board.
At that time, there were only cafes located outside of the U. From to , Starbucks rapidly expanded from 3, to about 16, locations, but for Schultz, the quality of the brand and its coffee had deteriorated.
He returned to the head position in to revitalize it. Once more, he picked up the mantle of executive chairman of the brand, this time focusing on Starbucks' Roastery and Reserve Bar expansion. Schultz expressed his confidence in the leadership team that he leaves behind at Starbucks in a CNBC interview on Tuesday. He called the future of the company "very bright" and praised his successor Johnson. However, Johnson has labored in Schultz's shadow.
The pair are separated by a door in their Seattle office and it was only in the last quarter that Schultz no longer appeared on the company's earnings conference call.
Nearly a year after Johnson took over as CEO, investors and analysts are still trying to gauge the success of his leadership. Some have praised his tech-savvy innovation and the company's growth in China, while others have lamented over the company's ongoing poor sales trends. Penney , and Kevin Johnson not really having much of a food and beverage background will be major hindrance moving forward," Kaplan said. Johnson was praised for his quick reaction to the incident at a Philadelphia Starbucks that resulted in the arrest of two black men.
He took responsibility for the incident, committed to reviewing the company's culture and practices, provided clear statements to employees and customers and flew out to meet with the two men who had been arrested. But it was tough to find a good cup of coffee when Howard Schultz first walked into a Starbucks at Seattle's Pike Place Market in Starbucks didn't serve brewed coffee at the time — it just sold the beans — but Schultz, who was traveling on a client visit from his native New York, was hooked by the store's atmosphere.
Related: Starbucks' Howard Schultz: Childhood in the projects inspired his ambition. Schultz persuaded Starbucks' three founders to hire him and moved a year later to Seattle to begin as director of retail operations and marketing.
In , Schultz went to Milan for a trade show and visited espresso bars around the city. But the beverage was the draw," he said. Schultz returned to Seattle, convinced that Starbucks should expand to start brewing coffee and focus on becoming a community gathering spot. Schultz left the company shortly after and started his own venture, Il Giornale, offering the Italian in-store brewed coffee and espresso concept in Two years later, with the help of local investors, including Bill Gates' father, Schultz bought Starbucks' six stores.
Related: Inside the first ever Starbucks store. Starbucks' investors gave Schultz the green light to expand, even at a loss, first into West Coast areas and then to Chicago. In , 11 years after Schultz stepped into Starbucks, he took the company public. It had stores at the time. In the following years, a cup of Starbucks became a status symbol.
By the time Schultz stepped down as CEO in , Starbucks had 3, stores in more than a dozen countries. After growing rapidly — the company had 12, stores by the end of — Starbucks' traffic had slowed down.
It misjudged the response to selling more food and DVDs, and no longer grinding all of its own coffee. In a leaked letter that year to then-CEO Jim Donald, Schultz said the decisions had resulted in a "watering down of the Starbucks experience" and a "commoditization of our brand.
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