Researching Kevin Johnson

During his 12-year playing career, Johnson was a three-time NBA All-Star as well as four-time second team All-NBA selection and held numerous records for the Phoenix Suns organization. At the University of California, Berkeley, Johnson was named a two-time All-Pac-10 Conference player and an honorable-mention All-American by the Associated Press.

Johnson holds a B.A. in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley that he completed after his initial retirement from the NBA. Since founding St. HOPE in 1989, Johnson has been active in education reform. As Mayor of Sacramento, Johnson launched two education initiatives: Stand UP and Sacramento READS!, to benefit students in Sacramento. Johnson also helped to deter the Sacramento Kings basketball team from moving to Anaheim, and, later, to Seattle, Washington.

Born in Gig Harbor, Washington, Johnson was raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He graduated from New Mexico State University in 1981 before embarking on a career in software development. Johnson first worked at a systems engineer at IBM during the late-1980s, before moving to Microsoft in 1992 to working in global technical support. After one of his earliest clients, Starbucks, needed wireless internet in their stores, Johnson first met Schultz. Working closely with Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer and founder Bill Gates, Johnson oversaw strategy for Microsoft and the firm's online search and advertising strategy. Johnson left Microsoft during the 2007-08 financial crisis to serve as chief executive of Juniper Networks from September 2008 to January 2014.

Johnson first joined Starbucks in September 2009 as a board member after which Schultz asked him to take a greater role at the firm. He was subsequently appointed chief operating officer for two years before becoming chief executive. Under his tenure, Starbucks has streamlined its core business, managed corporate programs to address racial inequality in the U.S., and revamped its product suite horizontally, particularly in espresso machine manufacturing and technological innovation. Outside of his professional career, Johnson served under U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC), a national cybersecurity task force.