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John Mackey (businessman)
Encyclopedia
John Mackey is an American businessman. He is the CEO of Whole Foods Market
which he had co-founded in 1980. Named the Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003, Mackey is a strong supporter of free market
economics. He is one of the most influential advocates in the movement
for organic food
.
in 1953 to Bill and Margaret Mackey. He has a sister and a brother. He was student of philosophy
and religion
at the University of Texas at Austin
in the 1970s, and worked at a vegetarian co-op. Mackey eventually became vegetarian. He now identifies as a vegan.
Mackey married his current wife Deborah Morin in 1992. Both practice yoga
. They spend the week in Austin
and weekends at their 720 acres (291.4 ha) ranch 40 miles (64 km) west of Austin.
store, Safer Way, in his garage in Austin in 1978, with his girlfriend Renee Lawson Hardy. They had met while working at a vegetarian co-op. They dropped out of university.
They borrowed $10,000 and raised $35,000 more to start a vegetarian grocery store which they named Safer Way. It was the first vegetarian supermarket
in Austin and all of Texas
. The two ran the market on the first floor, a health food restaurant on the second, and lived on the third story of their building. In two years, they merged Safer Way with a natural-foods store and renamed the business Whole Foods.
Mackey built Whole Foods into a national organization, with outlets in major markets across the country. Along the way he bought out smaller competitors. In 2007 Whole Foods took over a major natural foods supermarket competitor, Wild Oats Markets, Inc.
The Organic Consumer's Association has called attention to some of Whole Foods's organic product line. As a result, John Mackey sent a letter to the Association threatening a lawsuit. He claimed the petition circulated by the Association infringed on Whole Foods Market's intellectual property
right.
, who criticized Whole Foods' animal standards regarding ducks at a shareholder
meeting in 2003. Mackey gave Ornelas his email address and they corresponded on the issue. He studied issues related to factory farming
and decided to switch to what he considers veganism. He advocates tougher animal standards.
Despite Whole Foods' welfare standards, Mackey has been criticized by abolitionist
vegans such as Gary L. Francione
. He believes the Whole Foods company policies betray the animal rights
position. By other accounts, Mackey is the "driving force" behind significant changes in animal welfare. For instance, he started a non-profit
foundation, the Animal Compassion Foundation, to address making animal welfare more economically viable.
While CEO of Whole Foods Market in 2008, Mackey earned a total compensation of $33,831, which included a base salary of $1, and a cash bonus of $33,830. In 2009, he again took a salary of $1, as well as receiving compensation amounting to $710,077. He has instituted caps on executive pay at the company.
Mackey is a major philanthropist
who has contributed up to $1 million a year to animal welfare
groups and other charities.
magazine among Mackey, Milton Friedman
, and T. J. Rodgers
, Mackey said that he is a free market libertarian
. He said that he used to be a "democratic socialist
" in college. As a beginning businessman he was challenged by workers for not paying adequate wages and by customers for overcharging, during a time when he was hardly breaking even. He began to take a more capitalistic
worldview, and discovered the works of Ludwig von Mises
, Friedrich Hayek
and Friedman. Mackey is an admirer of author Ayn Rand
.
Mackey co-founded the organization, Freedom Lights Our World (FLOW, to combine his commitments to "economic and political freedom as well as personal growth, social responsibility, and environmental stewardship." He supports such changes as green tax shifts
, environmental trusts, world legal systems to allow the poor to create legal businesses, and a citizen's dividend
to help the poor in the developed world.
that ultimately did not become part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
. Mackey thinks a better plan would be allowing consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines and use a combination of health savings account
s and catastrophic insurance, as Whole Foods does. Mackey's statement that Americans do not have an intrinsic right to healthcare led to calls for a boycott
of Whole Foods Market from the Progressive Review
and from numerous groups on Facebook
.
.
Whole Foods Market is one of only two non-union Fortune 500 companies listed by Forbes
among the "25 Best Companies to Work For" in 2005. Mackey ascribes this to his pro-employee philosophy. He supports non-adversarial unions and advocates their legalization in the U.S.
:
"Rahodeb" (an anagram
of his wife's name, Deborah) to post to Yahoo Finance forums. He referred to himself in the third person and criticized rival supermarket chain Wild Oats Markets
. The Federal Trade Commission approved a complaint challenging Whole Foods Market’s approximately $670 million acquisition of its chief rival, Wild Oats Markets, Inc. It authorized the FTC staff to seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in federal district court to halt the deal, pending an administrative trial on the merits. After an extensive regulatory battle with the FTC, a federal appeals court consented to the deal. Whole Foods officially completed their buyout of Wild Oats on August 27, 2007.
In May 2008, after an SEC investigation cleared him, Mackey started blog
ging again. In a 2,037 word post, he wrote about why he began blogging in the first place and how his upbringing drove him to defend himself and Whole Foods. He admitted he made a mistake in judgment, but not in ethics.
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the U.S...
which he had co-founded in 1980. Named the Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....
Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003, Mackey is a strong supporter of free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
economics. He is one of the most influential advocates in the movement
Organic movement
The organic movement broadly refers to the organizations and individuals involved worldwide in the promotion of organic farming, which is a more sustainable mode of agriculture...
for organic food
Organic food
Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.For the...
.
Early life and education
John Mackey was born in Houston, TexasHouston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
in 1953 to Bill and Margaret Mackey. He has a sister and a brother. He was student of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
in the 1970s, and worked at a vegetarian co-op. Mackey eventually became vegetarian. He now identifies as a vegan.
Marriage and family
Mackey had a longtime relationship with Mary Kay Hagen.Mackey married his current wife Deborah Morin in 1992. Both practice yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
. They spend the week in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
and weekends at their 720 acres (291.4 ha) ranch 40 miles (64 km) west of Austin.
Career
Mackey began his first health foodHealth food
The term health food is generally used to describe foods that are considered to be beneficial to health, beyond a normal healthy diet required for human nutrition. However, the term is not precisely defined by national regulatory agencies such as the U.S...
store, Safer Way, in his garage in Austin in 1978, with his girlfriend Renee Lawson Hardy. They had met while working at a vegetarian co-op. They dropped out of university.
They borrowed $10,000 and raised $35,000 more to start a vegetarian grocery store which they named Safer Way. It was the first vegetarian supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
in Austin and all of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. The two ran the market on the first floor, a health food restaurant on the second, and lived on the third story of their building. In two years, they merged Safer Way with a natural-foods store and renamed the business Whole Foods.
Mackey built Whole Foods into a national organization, with outlets in major markets across the country. Along the way he bought out smaller competitors. In 2007 Whole Foods took over a major natural foods supermarket competitor, Wild Oats Markets, Inc.
The Organic Consumer's Association has called attention to some of Whole Foods's organic product line. As a result, John Mackey sent a letter to the Association threatening a lawsuit. He claimed the petition circulated by the Association infringed on Whole Foods Market's intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
right.
Animal welfare
Whole Foods was the first grocery chain to set standards for humane animal treatment. Mackey was influenced by animal rights activist, Lauren OrnelasLauren Ornelas
lauren Ornelas is an animal rights advocate for more than 20 years and the founder and Director of the Food Empowerment Project and .Ornelas grew up in Texas, where she became a vegetarian as a child. When in high school, she became a vegan and started her first animal rights group...
, who criticized Whole Foods' animal standards regarding ducks at a shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
meeting in 2003. Mackey gave Ornelas his email address and they corresponded on the issue. He studied issues related to factory farming
Factory farming
Factory farming is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption...
and decided to switch to what he considers veganism. He advocates tougher animal standards.
Despite Whole Foods' welfare standards, Mackey has been criticized by abolitionist
Abolitionism (animal rights)
Abolitionism within the animal rights movement is the idea that focusing on animal welfare reform not only fails to challenge animal suffering, but may prolong it by making the exercise of property rights over animals appear acceptable. The abolitionists' objective is to secure a moral and legal...
vegans such as Gary L. Francione
Gary L. Francione
Gary Lawrence Francione is an American legal scholar. He is the Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law & Philosophy at Rutgers School of Law-Newark....
. He believes the Whole Foods company policies betray the animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
position. By other accounts, Mackey is the "driving force" behind significant changes in animal welfare. For instance, he started a non-profit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
foundation, the Animal Compassion Foundation, to address making animal welfare more economically viable.
Letter to employees
In 2006, Mackey announced he was reducing his salary to $1 a year, would donate his stock portfolio to charity, and set up a $100,000 emergency fund for staff facing personal problems. He wrote: "I am now 53 years old and I have reached a place in my life where I no longer want to work for money, but simply for the joy of the work itself and to better answer the call to service that I feel so clearly in my own heart."While CEO of Whole Foods Market in 2008, Mackey earned a total compensation of $33,831, which included a base salary of $1, and a cash bonus of $33,830. In 2009, he again took a salary of $1, as well as receiving compensation amounting to $710,077. He has instituted caps on executive pay at the company.
Mackey is a major philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
who has contributed up to $1 million a year to animal welfare
Animal welfare
Animal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals.The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights...
groups and other charities.
Libertarian
In a debate in ReasonReason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
magazine among Mackey, Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
, and T. J. Rodgers
T. J. Rodgers
Thurman John Rodgers, better known as T.J. Rodgers, is the founder and chief executive officer of Cypress Semiconductor. He is known for his public relations acumen, brash personality, and strong advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism.-Early life:...
, Mackey said that he is a free market libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
. He said that he used to be a "democratic socialist
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
" in college. As a beginning businessman he was challenged by workers for not paying adequate wages and by customers for overcharging, during a time when he was hardly breaking even. He began to take a more capitalistic
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
worldview, and discovered the works of Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economist, philosopher, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern Libertarian movement and the "Austrian School" of economic thought.-Biography:-Early life:...
, Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
and Friedman. Mackey is an admirer of author Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
.
Mackey co-founded the organization, Freedom Lights Our World (FLOW, to combine his commitments to "economic and political freedom as well as personal growth, social responsibility, and environmental stewardship." He supports such changes as green tax shifts
Ecotax
Ecotax refers to taxes intended to promote ecologically sustainable activities via economic incentives. Such a policy can complement or avert the need for regulatory approaches. Often, an ecotax policy proposal may attempt to maintain overall tax revenue by proportionately reducing other taxes...
, environmental trusts, world legal systems to allow the poor to create legal businesses, and a citizen's dividend
Citizen's dividend
Citizen's dividend or citizen's income is a proposed state policy based upon the principle that the natural world is the common property of all persons . It is proposed that all citizens receive regular payments from revenue raised by the state through leasing or selling natural resources for...
to help the poor in the developed world.
Healthcare reform
Mackey opposed the public health insurance optionPublic health insurance option
The public health insurance option is a proposed government-run health insurance agency which competes with other health insurance companies. It is not the same as Publicly-funded health care. Called the public insurance option or public option, for short, it was a proposed health insurance plan...
that ultimately did not become part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress...
. Mackey thinks a better plan would be allowing consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines and use a combination of health savings account
Health savings account
A health savings account is a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan . The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. Unlike a flexible spending account...
s and catastrophic insurance, as Whole Foods does. Mackey's statement that Americans do not have an intrinsic right to healthcare led to calls for a boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of Whole Foods Market from the Progressive Review
Progressive Review
Progressive Review, or ProRev, is an American online alternative publication that started in 1964 as the Idler newspaper. Sam Smith, the editor, starting publishing online in 1995, and in 2004 Smith stopped publishing the Progressive Review in a hard copy edition.A email news digest, called...
and from numerous groups on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
.
Unions
John Mackey is known for his strong anti-union views, having once compared unions to herpes in that "it won't kill you, but it's very unpleasant and will make a lot of people not want to be your lover." Whole Foods, along with Costco and Starbucks, teamed up in 2008 to attempt to defeat the Employee Free Choice ActEmployee Free Choice Act
The Employee Free Choice Act was a legislative bill that was introduced into both chambers of the U.S. Congress on March 10, 2009. The bill's purpose was to,...
.
Whole Foods Market is one of only two non-union Fortune 500 companies listed by Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
among the "25 Best Companies to Work For" in 2005. Mackey ascribes this to his pro-employee philosophy. He supports non-adversarial unions and advocates their legalization in the U.S.
"It's illegal in the United States for there to be company unionCompany unionA company union is a trade union which is located within and run by a company or by the national government, and is not affiliated with an independent trade union. Company unions were outlawed in the United States by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, due to their use as agents for interference...
s — special unions which are formed and controlled by the employees and managers of the company to represent their interests and collectively bargain on their behalf. These type of unions are legal in many countries such as Japan, but are illegal in the United States. Instead the law requires that all unions be outside unions. I believe this law should be repealed and that company unions should be as legal as any other kind of voluntary association."
Environment
An excerpt of Mackey's frankness was demonstrated in an interview with The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
:
...Mackey told me that he agrees with the book's assertion that, as he put it, "no scientific consensus exists" regarding the causes of climate change; he added, with a candor you could call bold or reckless, that it would be a pity to allow "hysteria about global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
" to cause us "to raise taxes and increase regulation, and in turn lower our standard of living and lead to an increase in poverty."
Yahoo! Finance postings
On July 20, 2007, The Wall Street Journal revealed that Mackey was, for at least seven years, using the pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Rahodeb" (an anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
of his wife's name, Deborah) to post to Yahoo Finance forums. He referred to himself in the third person and criticized rival supermarket chain Wild Oats Markets
Wild Oats Markets
Wild Oats Markets was an operator of natural foods stores and farmers markets in North America. The stores offered dry grocery, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, frozen, prepared foods, bakery, vitamins and supplements, health and body care, and household items. As of February 21, 2007, it operated...
. The Federal Trade Commission approved a complaint challenging Whole Foods Market’s approximately $670 million acquisition of its chief rival, Wild Oats Markets, Inc. It authorized the FTC staff to seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in federal district court to halt the deal, pending an administrative trial on the merits. After an extensive regulatory battle with the FTC, a federal appeals court consented to the deal. Whole Foods officially completed their buyout of Wild Oats on August 27, 2007.
In May 2008, after an SEC investigation cleared him, Mackey started blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ging again. In a 2,037 word post, he wrote about why he began blogging in the first place and how his upbringing drove him to defend himself and Whole Foods. He admitted he made a mistake in judgment, but not in ethics.
Resignation as Whole Foods Chairman
On December 24, 2009, Mackey resigned from the position of Chairman of the Board of Whole Foods Market. On his blog he said, "John Elstrott will now take the title of Chairman of the Board, which will accurately reflect the authority and the responsibilities that he has had for many years."Legacy and honors
- 2003, Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year
- 2005, Top 25 Companies to Work For
- May 2008, he received an honoraryHonorary degreeAn honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
bachelor's degreeBachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from Bentley CollegeBentley CollegeBentley University is a private co-educational university in Waltham, Massachusetts, west of Boston. Founded in 1917 as a school of accounting and finance in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Bentley moved to Waltham in 1968...
.
External links
- John Mackey Profile
- John Mackey's blog on the Whole Foods Market website
- FLOW A non-profit co-founded by John Mackey that is dedicated to "liberating the entrepreneurial spirit for good" and described as "a transpartisan movement combing idealistic initiative with free enterprise principles to systematically work toward a better world."
- Welcome to "Whole-Mart", CommonDreams.org, May 2, 2006.