David W. MacLennan (born 1958/59) is an American businessman, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of
Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
.
MacLennan received a BA in English from
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
, followed by an MBA in Finance from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
.
MacLennan has been chairman and CEO of Cargill since 2013, when he succeeded
Greg Page.
Under MacLennan’s leadership, Cargill has faced numerous controversies and criticisms.
Criticism
In 2019, former U.S. Congressman
Henry A. Waxman
Henry Arnold Waxman (born September 12, 1939) is an American politician who served as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from California from 1975 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat ...
, in a report by
Mighty Earth
The Center for International Policy (CIP) is a non-profit foreign policy research and advocacy think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City. It was founded in 1975 in response to the Vietnam War. The Center describes its mission ...
, called Cargill "the worst company in the world" and noted that it drives "the most important problems facing our world" (deforestation, pollution, climate change, exploitation) "at a scale that dwarfs their closest competitors."
Personal life
He is married to Kathleen MacLennan,
and they have three adult children.
References
1950s births
Living people
Cargill people
Amherst College alumni
University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni
American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies
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