Running Toward the Chaos: A Q&A With Top Lawyer at Austin's Whole Foods
Heather Stern became the top lawyer at Whole Foods Market Inc. just three months before Amazon announced it would acquire the health food grocery chain for $13.7 billion.
April 30, 2019 at 11:59 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Corporate Counsel
Heather Stern has a lot in her cart. As the senior vice president for legal affairs and general counsel at Austin-based Whole Foods Market Inc., she oversees a nearly 75-person team that handles everything from litigation to loss prevention. Before going in-house, Stern clerked for a federal appellate judge and spent a year as an associate at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton.
She joined the popular health food grocery chain in April 2017, just three months before Amazon announced that it would acquire Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Previously, she had spent nearly 12 years at Office Depot Inc.
Stern spoke with staff reporter Kristen Rasmussen about the challenges associated with handling legal matters for a company in the food and beverage industry and how she guided her department through Amazon's acquisition. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
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