“Starting my own business was kind of a wakeup call in a number of different ways. I had to meet a payroll every week, and we had to satisfy customers, and we had competitors that we had to compete with in order to have those customers come into our stores, and we had to compete with other employers for our employees.”

American businessman and author

John Mackey is an American businessman and author. He is best known as the co-founder of Whole Foods Market and for leading the company as chief executive from its start in 1980 until his retirement in 2022. He later became the chief executive of Love.Life, which he also co-founded. His public profile is tied to business leadership, entrepreneurship, and the company he helped build into a major name in food retail.