SEATTLE _ Howard Schultz is stepping down as Starbucks executive chairman and leaving the company's board of directors, effective June 26, and he hasn't ruled out running for president.
The man who grew a small Seattle chain selling coffee beans and equipment into a global coffee behemoth told employees, "I'll be thinking about a range of options for myself, from philanthropy to public service, but I'm a long way from knowing what the future holds," according to a memo Starbucks made public Monday afternoon.
"I want to be truthful with you without creating more speculative headlines," he said in discussing his political ambitions in an interview with The New York Times. "For some time now, I have been deeply concerned about our country _ the growing division at home and our standing in the world.
"One of the things I want to do in my next chapter is to figure out if there is a role I can play in giving back," he continued. "I'm not exactly sure what that means yet."
Schultz, who handed off the chief executive role at Starbucks a year ago to Kevin Johnson, will have the title of chairman emeritus.
Schultz has helped Starbucks navigate one of its most tumultuous periods this spring as the company was in the headlines for the arrests of two black men at a Philadelphia store, an incident Schultz described as deeply embarrassing. The company's subsequent reaction _ a series of policy changes and last week's high-profile closure of 8,000 U.S. stores to provide anti-racial bias training to 175,000 employees _ marked what Schultz called the start of a new era at Starbucks.
