Whole Foods was already ahead of its time when Wittenberg joined the company in 1981--even then it banned artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. Since then she’s driven the company’s aggressive quality campaign, which often makes the retailer a leader on issues like seafood sustainability and animal welfare standards. The company requires its suppliers to list all ingredients in cleaning products, even though the U.S. government doesn’t, and is insisting all of its vendors label products that include GMOs by 2018. “Whole Foods is just kind of a beacon of what’s to come,” she told Fortune earlier this year.