Although Howard Schultz was the public face of Sonics ownership, he had many partners, many of whom have never been publicly revealed. It took 58 people to put up the $200 million to buy the team in 2001. Here are the owners who are known:
The Starbuckies: Howard Schultz, chairman; Orin Smith, former president and CEO; David Olsen, senior vice president; Wanda Herndon, senior vice president; Michael and Jacqueline Casey, senior vice president and wife; Nancy and Jack Rodgers, early investors.
The tech crowd: John Stanton, former chairman of Western Wireless; Theresa Gilespie, former vice chair of Western Wireless; Peter van Oppen, chairman and CEO of Digital Information Co.; W. Russell Daggatt, former president of Teledesic; Alan and Joyce Bender, former executive with Western Wireless and T-Mobile, and wife; Lynn and Mikal Thomsen, former president of Western Wireless; Naveen Jain, CEO of Intelius; Greg Maffei, president and CEO of Liberty Media and former Microsoft CFO.
The lawyers: G. Scott Greenburg, Stewart Landefeld, Ronald Berenstain, Valerie Hughes, Harry Schneider Jr., Patrick Simpson, V.L. Woolston, Michael Reynvaan, Roger Tolbert.
The gamers: Richard Tait, of Cranium; Rob Angel, of Pictionary; Craig Kinzer, of Scene It; and David Edelstein, of Scene It and Cranium.
The non-locals: Duncan MacNaughton, Hawaii developer; William Goodwin, Virginia investor.
Others: Stan Barer, UW regent; Dan and Cindy Brettler, founder of Car Toys, and wife; Bill Block, director of King County's Committee to End Homelessness; Peter Nordstrom, board member, Nordstrom; Sabey Corporation, Seattle developer; H.S. Wright III, chairman of Seattle Hospitality Group; Jon & Julie Barwick, Seattle financial planning firm; Ken Woolcott, former pharmaceutical company executive; Dennis Daugs, investment adviser; Douglas Donnelly, stockbroker.
Mystery owners: The Sonics have never disclosed about a dozen owners. Some are family members of other owners.
E-mail article
Print view
E-mail article
Print view
Back to top