John Mackey spent his formative years trying to divine the purpose of his life. After much soul-searching and lots of reading, he made an important decision: come hell or high water “he would follow his heart wherever it led him.”

Since 1980 his heart has led him to create and run Whole Foods Market — “a store that sells healthy food to people and provides good jobs.” More recently, Mackey has embarked on a grander mission: “to liberate the extraordinary power of business and capitalism to create a world in which all people live lives full of prosperity, love, and creativity — a world of compassion, freedom, and prosperity.”

Mackey is not your typical CEO. He hasn’t taken a paycheck for more than six years. He has also donated all his recent stock options to Whole Planet, a Whole Foods nonprofit that provides start-up microloans to poor people (primarily women) in more than fifty developing countries.