Company of the Year – Peak Patagonia

Yvon Chouinard built an empire for the good of the planet. But to ensure Patagonia's purpose in perpetuity, he needed one final, unprecedented move. The inside story of the mic drop heard round the world.

- By Alex Bhattacharji

PATAGONIA

FOUNDER: Yvon Chouinard

AREA OF IMPACT: Sustainability

As the crowd of 600 or so Patagonia employees gathered on the morning of September 14, they had an inkling that something big was coming. If the all-day hold placed on their calendars hadn't clued them in, what they found in the courtyard of their office in Ventura, California, did: a fleet of food trucks; big displays charting the company's milestones; a smattering of alums, some of whom dated to Patagonia's founding in 1973; a new stage with Patagonia signage; and video cameras beaming the event to the rest of their 3,500 colleagues.

As a giant screen came to life, the crowd cheered a rousing cold open from Trevor Noah, followed by a video of the company's leaders that erased any doubt about the enormity of the moment.

"None of us have been able to talk about this," Patagonia board member Kris Tompkins, also the company's first CEO, began. "I believe this is tectonic." Patagonia president Jenna Johnson put it more plainly: "We're here to talk about a really big fucking deal." The company's deputy general counsel, Greg Curtis, followed her, adding, "This whole situation is incredibly humbling." Next came Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert: "I think what the Chouinards have committed to doing, and what we've all been able to create here, is one of the bigger moments, honestly, in the history of capitalism."