As the co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, Inc., John Mackey is a leading practitioner of empowerment management and has helped build a $10 billion Fortune 500 company, now one of the top 20 supermarket companies in America.

John and the Whole Foods Market leadership team believe in decentralization and remain willing to experiment with new business ideas. Recent examples include offering $10 million in low-interest loans to local farmers and food producers to help them expand their enterprises, launching the Whole Planet Foundation to help end poverty in developing nations with micro credit, creating a platform in the marketplace to improve welfare for food animals, creating transparency in seafood sustainability, and promoting Healthy Eating education.

A graduate of the University of Texas, Austin, John is a co-founder of Conscious Capitalism, a non-profit organization with the tagline Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit for Good. About his heritage, John says: “My sense of humor and playfulness probably come from my Irish side! I love being both Irish and Scottish.”