Howard Behar

Howard Behar’s career in business spans over 50 years, all in consumer oriented businesses covering several industries. He retired from Starbucks Coffee after 21 years where he led both the domestic business, as President of North America, and was the founding President of Starbucks International. He was responsible for taking the coffee giant from a small regional chain to an international powerhouse. During his tenure, he participated in the growth of the company from only 28 stores to over 15,000 stores spanning five different continents.

During his many years as a senior executive at Starbucks, Howard Behar helped establish the Starbucks culture, which stresses the importance of people over profits. He has coached hundreds of leaders at every level and he has helped the company grow into a world-renowned brand. Today as a keynote speaker he reveals his ten principles that guided his leadership and success—and not a single one of them is about coffee.

Howard is committed to the development and education of our future leaders and has been a longtime advocate of the Servant Leadership Model. He has also authored two books on leadership titled “It’s Not About the Coffee” and “The Magic Cup”. He says it’s a parable about the power of putting people and values first. The book outlines the principles he followed to help Starbucks maintain its unique culture as the business scaled exponentially all around the world.

Teemat: Leadership | Strategy | Education | Organisational Change | Corporate Culture | Employee Engagement