Jason Buechel

Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods Market; Vice President, Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores Whole Foods Market

Last Reviewed: September 30, 2026

Executive Summary

Jason Buechel is Chief Executive Officer of Whole Foods Market, the Austin-based natural and organic grocer owned by Amazon, and since January 2025 has also been Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores, with responsibility for Amazon’s physical grocery businesses. He succeeded co-founder John Mackey as chief executive in 2022. His route to the job was through technology and operations rather than merchandising: he joined Whole Foods in 2013 as its Chief Information Officer, became an executive vice president in 2015 and Chief Operating Officer in 2019. Before that he spent 12 years advising retailers at Accenture.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Whole Foods Market since 2022, succeeding co-founder John Mackey on his retirement; the company lists 540 U.S., 12 U.K. and 12 Canadian stores and more than 105,000 team members.
• Named Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores in January 2025 while keeping the Whole Foods role, reporting to Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores.
• Chief Operating Officer from 2019, overseeing store and facility operations, technology, supply chain and distribution, and team member services.
• As Global Vice President and Chief Information Officer from 2013, led a new point-of-sale platform, Whole Foods Market’s first customer loyalty program, online ordering and delivery through Instacart, a mobile app, Apple Pay and a Workday HR implementation.
• Managing director and partner at Accenture, leading its retail channels practice for North America.

Professional Journey

Buechel earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and spent 12 years at Accenture, finishing as a managing director and partner in its retail operations practice, where he led the retail channels practice for North America. His work there was advising retailers on large business and technology changes: store operations, point of sale, mobile, e-commerce, workforce management and IT outsourcing.

He joined Whole Foods Market in 2013 as Global Vice President and Chief Information Officer, running the technology team in Austin and across the company’s regional offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. The projects from that period included a single point-of-sale platform, the company’s first customer loyalty program, online ordering and delivery with Instacart, a mobile app, Apple Pay and a move to Workday for HR and labor scheduling. He was promoted to executive vice president in 2015. In 2019 he became Chief Operating Officer, responsible for all stores and facilities as well as technology, supply chain and distribution, real estate and design, and team member services.

In October 2021 Whole Foods announced that John Mackey, who co-founded the company in Austin in 1980, would retire and that Buechel would succeed him. He became chief executive in 2022. Amazon says that under his leadership Whole Foods has recorded its strongest sales growth and grown to more than 535 locations.

In January 2025 Amazon widened his role. He became Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores while staying on as chief executive of Whole Foods, joined Amazon’s Stores leadership team and began reporting to Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. The move put Amazon’s other grocery store businesses under him alongside Whole Foods. His predecessor as head of Amazon grocery had left the previous October.

He has written about Whole Foods decisions on Amazon’s and the grocer’s own sites. These include Amazon’s grocery discount for U.S. employees and a $230 million package of higher pay and expanded benefits for more than 100,000 U.S. Whole Foods team members. That package brings a pay increase for hourly store staff on September 28, followed by access to Amazon’s benefits from January 1, 2027. He also sits on the board of the WFM Foundation, the company’s charitable foundation, which works to widen access to local, good-quality food.

Education

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Bachelor’s degree