Whitney MacMillan, ​a billionaire and the former chairman and chief executive officer of agribusiness giant Cargill, passed away on March 11 in Vero Beach, Florida at 90 years old. He took over as CEO and chairman of the board in 1976 and led the company to become a global conglomerate. Along with adding independent directors to the Cargill board and creating an employee stock ownership plan, MacMillan crucially steered the company to stay private. ​Dozens of ​Cargill and MacMillan family descendants own a piece ​of the company and some family factions have tried to cash out over the years. MacMillan was the last Cargill-MacMillan family member to run ​Cargill, which is now the largest private company in ​the U.S. in revenue terms, with $113.5 billion in 2018 revenue.

Source: Forbes March 12, 2020 17:37 UTC