Tim Schottman, Ex-Starbucks Executive, Gives The Gift Of Sight Through SightLife

At first glance, coffee and corneal blindness may not seem to have a lot in common. However, due to the efforts of Tim Schottman, an ex-Starbucks executive, hundreds of people around the world have been cured through the nonprofit, SightLife.

SightLife President Monty Montoya reached out to Schottman when he wanted to ramp up his organization's efforts against the global problem of corneal blindness. When Montoya set a goal of 900 eye banks worldwide, Schottman wasn't phased.

"There were times we were putting plans together to open five, six, seven stores in a day. So to me, 900 over a 10- to 20-year time period seemed very modest in terms of its ambition."

Schottman was a part of the global strategy team at Starbucks until 2008. Since then, he's joined the team at SightLife as senior vice president for global programs, using his corporate know-how to make their efforts possible across a broad variety of cultures.

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