
In 2022, John Mackey, Whole Foods' cofounder and CEO of 44 years, was stepping down to be replaced by the grocer’s COO, Jason Buechel.
It was an exciting moment for Buechel but also a tenuous one. Despite a nine-year C-suite residence at the Austin-based Whole Foods, during which he ascended from CIO to CEO, Buechel was filling the big shoes of a colorful, brash, and enigmatic founder-CEO with many loyalists (and some newfound skeptics) in the organization.