Howard Schultz, who was later to lead Starbucks, was born in 1953. He started his career as
a sales trainee at Xerox.7 After three years at Xerox, the 26-year-old Schultz joined a Swedish
housewares company, Hammerplast, which sold coffee makers to various retailers and Starbucks
was one of its major customers. In 1981, Schultz visited Starbucks while on a business
trip to Seattle. After visiting the company and its owners, he was completely fascinated. He
realized that the specialty coffee business was close to his heart and he decided to be a part
of Starbucks. In 1982 Schultz joined Starbucks as director, Retail Operations & Marketing.