Getty Howard Schultz's family.
Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, is from a blue collar family. He grew up in a housing project, and his hard-scrabble background is a core part of his biography.
Schultz is also the married father of two. His wife, Sheri Schultz, is heavily involved in her husband’s philanthropic efforts, especially with at-risk children, and they have been married since 1982. They have two children: Daughter Addison, and a son, Jordan Schultz.
Howard Schultz is now chairman emeritus of the coffee chain that he led for years. Howard Schultz is widely reported to be considering a 2020 presidential run, and he was scheduled to appear on 60 Minutes to discuss that possibility on January 27, 2019.
Here’s what you need to know about Howard Schultz’s family:
1. Sheri Kersch Schultz Encouraged Her Husband to Follow His Dreams & He Was Drawn to Her Class
Sheri Schultz attends the Inspirational Forum during Opportunity Fair and Forum on August 13, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois.
Sheri Kersch Schultz is president of the Schultz Family Foundation, which, according to its website, “she co-founded in 1996 with her husband, Howard Schultz, chairman emeritus of Starbucks Coffee Company.”
The website site says the foundation is “guided by a belief that the right opportunities at the right time can unleash human potential—and that ‘inequality of opportunity’ is stifling America’s own potential, the Foundation invests in innovative solutions and collaborative partnerships that create new pathways to opportunity so disconnected populations can overcome barriers to success.”
Howard Schultz recalled a time when Sheri “was the sole breadwinner and seven months pregnant, while he worked without a salary on his small coffee business,” according to The Huffington Post.
His father-in-law told him, “It’s time that you give up this [coffee] hobby and get a job,” prompting Howard to cry, but his wife disagreed and told him, “We’re going to follow these dreams that you have. We’re going to see this through,” according to The Huffington Post.
Howard Schultz (L) Sheri Schultz attend the 31st Annual FGI Night of Stars event at Cipriani Wall Street on October 23, 2014 in New York City.
In a chapter of his book, Pour Your Heart Into It, Howard Schultz described how he met Sheri, who was then known as Sheri Kersch.
“I paid off my college loans and rented an apartment in Greenwich Village with another guy. We were rolling, and having a great time,” he wrote. “During one summer, eight of us rented a cottage in the Hamptons for weekends, and it was there, on the beach, July Fourth weekend, 1978, that I met Sheri Kersch.”
He described in detail what drew him to the woman who would become his wife.
“With her flash of long wavy blonde hair and unflagging energy, Sheri attracted me with her impeccable style and class,” he wrote. “She was in graduate school studying interior design and also spent summer weekends with a group of friends at the beach. She was not only beautiful but well-grounded, with solid midwestern values, from a close and loving family. We were both starting our careers, without a care in the world. We began dating, and the more I got to know her, the more I realized what a fine human being she was.”
According to the foundation website, Sheri grew up in Lima, Ohio and “holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Denver.”
2. Howard Schultz Has Described His Parents as ‘Working Poor’
GettySheri Kersch Schultz attends the GLSEN Respect Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on October 19, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.
According to the family’s foundation, “Howard grew up in public housing and was the first in his family to graduate college. As a young entrepreneur, he set out to build a different kind of company, one that delivers business excellence through a culture of compassion.”
His mother is named Elaine (Lederman) and his father was a truck driver named Fred Schultz. According to The Mirror, “His father Fred, ‘an uneducated, high-school drop-out army veteran,’ earned a living driving a truck, including a stint ferrying used nappies around Brooklyn.” Howard Schultz has described his father as an honest and hard-working but ultimately a beaten man.
CNBC describes Fred Schultz as a man who “never graduated from high school and held a series of blue-collar jobs including truck driver, factory worker and cab driver. He never made more than $20,000 a year, and with three children to feed, Fred was never able to afford to buy a home.”
In his book, he described his upbringing in depth. “I was three when my family moved out of my grandmother’s apartment into the Bayview Projects in 1956,” he wrote. “They were in the heart of Canarsie, on Jamaica Bay, fifteen minutes from the airport, fifteen minutes from Coney Island. Back then, the Projects were not a frightening place but a friendly, large, leafy compound with a dozen eight-story brick buildings, all brand-new. The elementary school, P.S. 272, was right on the grounds of the Projects, complete with playground, basketball courts, and paved school yard. Still, no one was proud of living in the Projects; our parents were all what we now call ‘the working poor.'”
Despite the cramped housing, he believes that growing up in the projects “made for a well-balanced value system, as it forced me to get along with many different kinds of people.”
In the book chapter, Schultz described his parents.
“Both my parents came from working-class families, residents of the East New York section of Brooklyn for two generations,” he wrote. “My grandfather died young, so my dad had to quit school and start working as a teenager. During World War II, he was a medic in the Army in the South Pacific, in New Caledonia and Saipan, where he contracted yellow fever and malaria. As a result, his lungs were always weak, and he often got colds. After the war, he got a series of blue-collar jobs but never found himself, never had a plan for his life.”
His mother, he wrote, “was a strong-willed and powerful woman. Her name is Elaine, but she goes by the nickname Bobbie. Later, she worked as a receptionist, but when we were growing up, she took care of us three kids full time.”
3. Howard Schultz Has Three Siblings
GettyHoward Schultz (L) and Sheri Kersch Schultz attend the GLSEN Respect Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on October 19, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.
In his book, Schultz explains that he grew up with a sister named Ronnie and a brother named Michael. He also had a third sibling, and Howard was the eldest. He acted like a father to Michael, he writes.
“I was able to insulate my brother, Michael, from the economic hardship I felt and give him the kind of guidance my parents couldn’t offer,” Schultz wrote in the book.
“He tagged along with me wherever I went. I used to call him ‘The Shadow.’ Despite the eight-year age gap, I developed an extremely close relationship with Michael, acting like a father to him when I could. I watched with pride as he became a good athlete, a strong student, and ultimately a success in his own business career.”
4. Howard’s Daughter, Addison Schultz, Works in Social Work & Is Married
Howard Schultz has a daughter named Addison, who has forged a career in social work.
In 2017, The New York Times ran a lengthy wedding announcement on the couple’s daughter, Addison Schultz, who married Tal Hirshberg.
The article said the bride was “a social-work clinician for the New York Foundling, a nonprofit organization that seeks to help children and adults reach their potential through the strengthening of families and communities. She graduated from N.Y.U., from which she also received a master’s degree in social work.”
The groom was described as “a Manhattan-based entertainment and public affairs project manager for Starbucks. He graduated from Duke and received a law degree from Emory.”
“We always manage to get things done despite the fact that we’re both pretty anxious people,” he told The Times. “Maybe we both drink too much coffee.”
5. Jordan Schultz, Howard Schultz’s Son, Is a Sports Journalist
According to Forbes, Howard Schultz’s net worth is estimated at around $3.4 billion.
Daily Mail described in 2011 how Howard Schultz purchased the couple’s son a $4.6 million “luxury loft” in Greenwich Village in New York. The son’s name is Jordan and he’s married to wife, Breanna. Jordan Schultz works as a sports columnist.
Jordan Schultz’s Twitter profile describes him as, “ESPN Insider/Analyst. Co-host of ? pod, @PullUpPod, w/@CJMcCollum. Correspondent of new ESPN+ show, The Boardroom. Ex-College 2-guard. IG: @Schultz_Report ?⬇️”
Jordan’s wedding announcement in the Times reports that his wife is the former Breanna Lind Hawes. “Mrs. Schultz, 27, is a senior manager in the sports and entertainment marketing group at Edelman, the New York public relations agency. She graduated from the University of Washington,” the wedding announcement read.
Jordan and his wife have a child together.
As for Jordan, the announcement said, “Mr. Schultz, 25, is known as Jordan. He writes a sports column for The Huffington Post, working in New York. He graduated from Occidental College.”