John Mackey Relinquishes Whole Foods Chairman Title

Whole Foods' resident corporate nutbar, CEO John Mackey, just had a lengthy profile in this week's New Yorker, which was just the latest instance of his, ahem, eccentric ways of dealing with the media. But now comes the news that he's relinquishing his title of chairman. Mackey will still be the company's CEO, but the surprising move—he's held the chairman title since 1978—means that he'll be less ubiquitous as the public face of Whole Foods.

As Gawker points out, many groups—headed by ctW Investment Group, shareholder activists that work with union pension funds—have been begging for the controversial agitator Mackey to step down for months, arguing for a separation of the two roles.
· Mackey steps down as WH chairman [NFM via Gawker]
· Whole Foods CEO Sits Down With The New Yorker, Overshares [~EN~]