Howard Behar is former president of Starbucks Coffee Company International and the author of ''It's Not About The Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks''. He started working at Starbucks in 1989 when the company had just begun to venture outside the American northwest region. Initially serving as vice president of sales and operations, he grew the retail business from 28 stores to more than 400 by the time he was named president of Starbucks Coffee International in 1995. Under Behar’s leadership, Starbucks opened its first location in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

in 1996. Following this historic opening, over the next three years he introduced the Starbucks brand across Asia and

the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. After a two-year hiatus, he returned to Starbucks as President of Starbucks North America until his retirement in March 2007. He has been a director of the company since 1996.Howard Behar
caaspeakers.com Retrieved March 2011

References

Businesspeople in coffee Starbucks people Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American people of Turkish-Jewish descent Directors of Starbucks {{US-business-bio-stub