Zev Siegl (born December 28, 1942) is an American keynote speaker and presenter. He co-founded

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

, with Gordon Bowker and Jerry Baldwin, in 1971, and was a director of the company during its first decade.

Early life

Zev Siegl was born on December 28, 1942, in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

to a

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family. His father, Henry Siegl (1911–1997), was a concert violinist who, starting in 1956, was the concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for 26 years. Siegl grew up in New York before moving to Seattle in 1956. His mother, Eleanor Shapiro Siegl (1917–1996), was an educator and founder of The Little School, now located on a campus in Kirkland, Washington.

Career

In March 1971, Siegl, Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker established Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle, Washington. 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 U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, near

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. In 2004, Siegl joined the federally funded Washington Small Business Development Center where he was lead advisor until 2012. While with the WSBDC he worked directly with more than 500 individual entrepreneurs and SMEs. Since 2013, Siegl has been a keynote presenter at major entrepreneurship and business conferences worldwide (

Kuwait City Kuwait City (; ) 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 economic center of the emirate, containing Kuwait's Seif Pal ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

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, 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

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington. He is married to an artist, Robin Siegl.

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 Drink company founders