Name: James Butler
Age: 33
Position: District manager, Coffee Partners Hawaii
First job: Gas station, Crossett, Ark.
Favorite pastimes: Golf, time with family
Coffee Partners Hawaii, a licensee of Starbucks Coffee International, has chosen James Butler for the newly created position of district manager. Taking java to the district level
Since entering Hawaii in 1996, Starbucks has opened 10 stores. New stores are planned this summer for Mililani, Kaneohe and Kailua-Kona on the Big Island.
Butler's district includes 26 managers and 140 employees.
Butler was attending Northeast Louisiana University in 1985 when his best friend decided to go back to Hawaii. "I bought a one-way ticket," Butler said. In Hawaii, Butler worked in management with Scott's Seafood Grill & Bar and Shore Bird restaurants, the Sheraton Princeville Hotel and Outrigger Hotels.
He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Wayland Baptist University under a program, open to civilians, on Oahu military bases.
By Jerry Tune, Star-Bulletin