SEATTLE - Washington Policy Center (WPC), Washington state’s foremost independent policy research organization, announced that John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, will be a keynote speaker at their Annual Dinner Event in Bellevue, on October 1, 2021. Mr. Mackey’s achieved success building a single store in Austin, Texas into a supermarket behemoth with more than 530 stores and 105,000 team members across North America and the United Kingdom. He has been recognized by Fortune as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” was named Barron’s “World’s Best CEO,” and Esquire’s “Most Inspiring CEO.”

“We are thrilled to bring a leading visionary and free market advocate like John Mackey to speak at our Annual Dinner event,” said WPC President Dann Mead Smith. “As an organization, we believe free market solutions improve lives, and John Mackey’s incredible work embodies that.”

Mr. Mackey is renowned for his strong advocacy and defense of free enterprise and free market principles.  He co-founded the Conscious Capitalism Movement (consciouscapitalism.org) and co-authored the book, “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business,” which became a New York Times bestseller. The book sought to defend and reimagine capitalism while encouraging a way of doing business grounded in ethical consciousness. His latest book, “Conscious Leadership: Elevating Humanity Through Business” is a follow-up to Conscious Capitalism and presents a roadmap for innovative, values-driven leadership.

Mr. Mackey is one of two keynote speakers planned for the event.  The second Bellevue speaker and two keynote speakers for WPC’s Spokane Annual Dinner event will be announced in the coming weeks. Ticket registration and additional information can be found at WPCdinner.com.  

Mr. Mackey joins a long line of distinguished WPC Annual Dinner speakers including former vice-presidential candidate and U.S. Senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman, former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, former Congressman J.C. Watts, syndicated columnists George Will and the late Dr. Charles Krauthammer, and former Governor of South Carolina and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. 

This year’s WPC Annual Dinner event marks the organization’s 25th anniversary.  WPC Annual Dinners are now among the largest of their kind. The 2019 Annual Dinner broke attendance and fundraising records, with 1200 attendees in the main ballroom with an additional 350 in the WPC Young Professionals’ ballroom, and more than $1.3 million raised to continue WPC’s work.

Washington Policy Center focuses on eight key research areas: Agriculture, Education, Environment, Government Reform, Health Care, Small Business, Transportation and Worker Rights. Ideas from WPC’s research centers are regularly implemented and debated by voters and the Legislature.