Do we like them?

Do we like Howard Schultz?

Our score: 5 out of 10. Good on marriage equality and veterans, but a labour board found he illegally told a worker to quit over union activity.

Howard Schultz is the man who turned Starbucks from a small Seattle chain into a global giant. He didn't found it, but he led it for decades, left in 2018 and came back as interim CEO in 2022. That arc, builder, retiree, rescuer, is the backbone of his public image.

The big stoush of his later career is unions. In a March 2023 Senate hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders accused Starbucks of union busting. Schultz denied the company broke the law, saying of a remark to a worker: “It was not a threat.” He also said she may have misinterpreted him, and the allegations stayed disputed.

The labour board later disagreed on that remark. In 2024 it found he broke federal labour law by telling a worker at a listening session that if she wasn't happy at Starbucks she could go work for another company. The ruling was about that comment, and it's a real stain on the good-person side.

On the harm check, the record is cleaner. In 2013, when shareholders grumbled about the company's support for marriage equality, he didn't back down, and a widely shared report said he didn't apologise. We found no harmful words of his own about LGBTQ+ people, women or the climate, though the search was thin on those last two.

The good stuff is real. In 2014 he pledged $30 million to help returning US troops, mostly on PTSD and brain-injury research and job training. His family foundation has kept backing veterans' career programs since.

The recent noise is political. His May 2026 Wall Street Journal piece argued Seattle has turned hostile to business, saying the mayor has chosen to cast business as a foil. Whether that reads as fair civic criticism or a billionaire swiping at a progressive mayor depends on where you stand on the city.