Zev Siegl (December 28, 1942) is an American

keynote A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

speaker and presenter. He co-founded

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

, with

Gordon Bowker Gordon Bowker is an American entrepreneur. He began as a writer and went on to co-found Starbucks with Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegl. He was later a co-owner of Peet's Coffee & Tea and Redhook Ale Brewery. Biography Following the death of his ...

and

Jerry Baldwin Gerald Baldwin is an American businessman. He and two other entrepreneurs, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl, founded Starbucks in Seattle, in 1971. He is a Sonoma Valley vintner, and co-founder of J. Baldwin Wines. Career Jerry Baldwin learned the cof ...

, in 1971, and served as a director of the company during its first decade.

Early life

Zev Siegl was born on December 28, 1942 in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. His father, Henry Siegl, was a concert violinist who, starting in 1956, served as the concertmaster of the

Seattle Symphony Orchestra The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra also serves as the accompanying orchestra for the Seattle Opera. History Beginnings The orchest ...

for 26 years. His mother, Eleanor Shapiro Siegl, was an educator and founder of The Little School, now located on a campus in Kirkland,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Career

In March 1971, Siegl,

and

established Starbucks Coffee Company in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. Siegl, a former public school history teacher, was the company's first paid employee. Siegl often mentions in his public talks that Starbucks wouldn't have been what it is today without the early mentorship they received from

Alfred Peet Alfred H. Peet (March 10, 1920 – August 29, 2007) was a Dutch-American entrepreneur and the founder of Peet's Coffee & Tea in Berkeley, California, in 1966. Peet is widely credited with starting the specialty coffee revolution in the US. Am ...

, who at the time was running an already successful coffee stores chain. Following a decade as vice president and a director, Siegl left Starbucks, which had expanded to dominate the gourmet coffee trade in Seattle, with six Seattle-area stores and a wholesale business. Siegl is the founder of several other small businesses, including Quartermaine Coffee Roasters, in Rockville,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, near

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. In 2004, Siegl joined the federally funded Washington Small Business Development Center where he served as lead advisor until 2012. While with the WSBDC he worked directly with more than 500 individual entrepreneurs and SMEs. Since 2013, Siegl has been sharing the entrepreneurship insights based upon his accumulated experience by serving as a keynote presenter at major entrepreneurship and business conferences worldwide (

Kuwait City Kuwait City ( ar, مدينة الكويت) is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Located at the heart of the country on the south shore of Kuwait Bay on the Persian Gulf, it is the political, cultural and economical centre of the emirate, ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, etc. ). Zev has also given virtual talks for large audiences of more than 10,000 attendees and has spoken for major corporations like IBM. Siegl also mentors MBA candidates at the two large universities located in Seattle, The Foster School of Business at The University of Washington and The Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University, and he coaches selected first-time entrepreneurs.

Personal life

Siegl lives in

. He is married to an artist,

Robin Siegl Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') ** Bush-robin **Forest r ...

. She likes to paint boats in the

harbor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegl, Zev 1942 births Living people Businesspeople in coffee Starbucks people 20th-century American Jews Place of birth missing (living people) American food company founders Directors of Starbucks University of San Francisco alumni Businesspeople from Seattle 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews