Whole Foods Market Taps Into Detroit’s Community Spirit As the Motor City Rebuilds

Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, discussed community stakeholders at the Darden School of Business. He shared how the company planned its new store based on the recommendations and input from a group of determined residents in Midtown Detroit.

Professor R. Edward Freeman, an expert on Stakeholder Theory and business ethics, facilitated a discussion following Robb’s presentation.

About the Expert

R. Edward Freeman

University Professor; Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration; Academic Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics; Co-Academic Director, Institute for Business in Society

Freeman is best known for his work on stakeholder theory and business ethics, in which he suggests that businesses build their strategy around their relationships with key stakeholders. His expertise also extends to areas such as leadership, corporate responsibility and business strategy. Since writing the award-winning book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach in 1984, countless scholars, business leaders and students worldwide have cited Freeman’s work.

Freeman also wrote Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation and Success and Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art.

B.A., Duke University; Ph.D., Washington University

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