. for the mineral see diamond . for other uses see cargill disambiguation . see also kargil cargill inc. nourishing ideas . nourishing people . type private industry trading founded 1865 ; 151 years ago 1865 founder william wallace cargill headquarters minnetonka minnesota u.s. area served worldwide key people gregory r. page executive chairman dave maclennan president and ceo products energy trading crop and livestock food health and pharmaceutical industrial & financial risk management raw materials electricity and gas revenue us 120.4 billion 2015 1 net income us 1.583 billion 2015 1 total assets us 59.23 billion 2015 1 owner cargill family 90 % number of employees 153 000 2015 1 website cargill.com cargill inc. is an american privately held 2 3 global corporation based in minnetonka minnesota a minneapolis suburb . founded in 1865 it is now the largest privately held corporation in the united states in terms of revenue . 4 if it were a public company it would rank as of 2015 number 12 on the fortune 500 behind mckesson and ahead of at & t. 5 some of cargill s major businesses are trading purchasing and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities such as palm oil ; trading in energy steel and transport ; the raising of livestock and production of feed ; producing food ingredients such as starch and glucose syrup vegetable oils and fats for application in processed foods and industrial use . cargill also operates a large financial services arm which manages financial risks in the commodity markets for the company . in 2003 it split off a portion of its financial operations into a hedge fund called black river asset management with about 10 billion of assets and liabilities . it owned 2 3 of the shares of the mosaic company sold off in 2011 one of the world s leading producers and marketers of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients . cargill declared revenues of 136.7 billion and earnings of 2.31 billion in the 2013 fiscal year . 6 employing over 140 000 employees in 66 countries 7 it is responsible for 25 % of all united states grain exports . the company also supplies about 22 % of the us domestic meat market importing more product from argentina than any other company and is the largest poultry producer in thailand . all of the eggs used in mcdonald s restaurants in the us pass through cargill s plants . it is the only producer of alberger process salt in the us which is used in the fast food and prepared food industries . cargill remains a family owned business as the descendants of the founder from the cargill and macmillan families own over 90 % of the company . 8 as a result most of its growth has been due to reinvestment of the company s own earnings rather than public financing . gregory r. page who is not part of either the cargill or macmillan families is the executive chairman of cargill . he succeeded former ceo warren staley in mid 2007 as staley reached cargill s mandatory retirement age of 65 before he in turn was succeeded by dave maclennan . contents 1 history 1.1 20th century 1.2 2000s 1.3 move to wichita kansas 2 board of directors 3 countries of operation 3.1 africa 3.2 asia pacific 3.2.1 cargill in india 3.3 europe 3.4 latin america 3.5 middle east 3.6 north america 3.6.1 meat processing plants 4 sponsorships 5 criticism 5.1 human rights abuses 5.2 food contamination 5.3 deforestation 6 career programs 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit the cargill lake office occupying the former rufus rand mansion on the main corporate campus in minnetonka houses the company s top executives . 9 cargill was founded in 1865 by william w. cargill when he bought a grain flat house in conover iowa . a year later william was joined by his brother sam forming w.w. cargill and brother . together they built grain flat houses and opened a lumberyard . in 1875 cargill moved to la crosse wisconsin and brother james joined the family business . the city of la crosse was strategically located at the junction of the milwaukee road railroad and the southern minnesota division . sam cargill left la crosse in 1887 and moved to minneapolis to manage the office there which was identified as an important emerging grain center . three years later the minneapolis operation incorporated under cargill elevator co. years after that the la crosse operation was incorporated under w.w. cargill company of la crosse wisconsin . in 1898 john h. macmillan sr. and his brother daniel began working for w.w. cargill . john macmillan then married william cargill s eldest daughter edna . 20th century edit upon sam cargill s death in 1903 william cargill became the sole owner of the la crosse office . john macmillan was named as general manager of cargill elevator company and moved his family to minneapolis . william cargill died in 1909 creating a fiscal crisis for the company . macmillan worked to resolve the credit issues and to force his brother in law william s. out of the company . the current owners are descended from john macmillan s two sons john h. macmillan jr. and cargill macmillan sr. and his youngest brother in law austen s. cargill i. john macmillan ran the company until his retirement in 1936 . under his leadership cargill grew several fold expanding out of the midwest by opening its first east coast offices in new york in 1923 and the first canadian european and latin american offices in 1928 1929 and 1930 . during this time cargill saw both record profits and major cash crunches . the first of these crises was the debt left by the death of w.w. cargill . the company issued 2.25 million in gold notes backed by cargill stock to pay off its creditors . the gold notes were due in 1917 but thanks to record grain prices caused by world war i all debts were paid back in 1915 . as world war i continued into 1917 cargill made record earnings and faced criticisms of war profiteering . four years later as a fallout from the financial crash of 1920 cargill posted its first loss . one of the company s biggest criticisms has been its perceived arrogance . see for example brewster kneen in the ecologist and also greg muttitt in the same journal . the macmillans aggressive management style led to a decades long feud with the chicago board of trade . the feud began in 1934 when the board denied membership to cargill . the us government overturned the board s ruling and forced it to accept cargill as a member . the 1936 corn crop failed and with the 1937 crop unavailable until october the chicago board of trade ordered cargill to sell some of its corn . cargill refused to comply . 9 the us commodity exchange authority and chicago board of trade accused cargill of trying to corner the corn market . in 1938 the chicago board suspended cargill and three of its officers from the trading floor . when the board lifted its suspension a few years later cargill refused to rejoin . cargill instead traded through independent traders . in 1962 cargill did rejoin the chicago board of trade two years after the death of john macmillan jr. during world war ii macmillan jr. continued to expand the company which boomed as it stored and transported grain and built ships for the united states navy . 9 in 1960 erwin kelm became the first non family chief executive . aiming for expansion into downstream production he led the company into milling starches and syrups . as the company got larger it developed a market intelligence network as it coordinated its commodities trading processing freight shipping and futures businesses . in the decades before email the company relied on its own telex based system to connect the company . 9 dust fills the air as ships are loaded from a cargill grain elevator in duluth minnesota 1973 when the soviet union entered the grain markets in the 1970s demand grew to unprecedented levels to the benefit of cargill . when whitney macmillan nephew of john jr. took over the company from kelm in 1976 revenue approached 30 billion . us government put pressure on big grain exporters on allegations of manipulating the market and cargill was a major target ; however it emerged without any major changes . 9 in 1979 cargill entered the meat processing business with the purchase of beef processor mbpxl later excel . 10 the division expanded into turkey foodservice and food distribution businesses and is now known as cargill meat solutions . tensions arose with the company s private shareholders as cargill typically put 80 % of earnings back into the business . by the early 1990s members of the cargill and macmillan families became upset that their shares in the company were only giving back mediocre dividends . demands rose for an initial public offering to turn the company public . the company responded with an employee stock ownership plan and in 1993 reportedly purchased 17 % of the firm for 730 million from 72 cargills and macmillans . it used that stake to begin the employee stock plan . the company s board of directors was reorganized to reduce the number of relatives to six alongside six independents and five managers . 9 ernest micek took over as chief executive in august 1995 . cargill underwent turmoil in the following years as its financial unit lost hundreds of millions of dollars in 1998 when russia defaulted on debt and developing countries began to have financial issues . the commodities and ingredients business which was 75 % of cargill s total revenue suffered from the 1997 asian financial crisis . 9 revenues fell by double digit percentages for two years in a row from 55.7 billion in 1997 to 51.4 billion in 1998 and 45.7 billion in 1999 while net income fell from 814 million in 1997 to 468 million in 1998 and 220 million in 1999 . 8 by 1999 the company had 4 billion in debt . after a reduction in previously strong bond credit rating micek announced he would step down a year early . 9 2000s edit warren staley became chief executive and continued expanding the company and it rebounded . by 2002 cargill had over 50 billion in annual sales twice the amount of its closest rival archer daniels midland and had 97 000 employees running more than 1 000 production sites and out of 59 countries . 9 on june 1 2007 staley was succeeded by gregory r. page . cargill s quarterly profits crossed 1 billion for the first time during the quarter ending on february 29 2008 1.03 billion ; the 86 % rise was credited to global food shortages and the expanding biofuels industry that in turn caused a rise in demand for cargill s core areas of agricultural commodities and technology . 11 12 13 in october 2011 the u.s. justice department announced that a biotech specialist at cargill had pleaded guilty to stealing information from cargill and dow agrosciences . kexue huang a chinese national was discovered to be passing trade secrets back to china . 14 in november 2011 cargill completed the acquisition of provimi a global animal nutrition company for euro 1.5 billion 2.1 billion us . 15 on april 1 2012 cargill completed a purchase of a cat and dog food plant in emporia ks . it was previously owned by american nutrition . 16 in december 2014 cargill finished commissioning a 100 million indonesian cocoa plant . 17 move to wichita kansas edit on september 29 2016 cargill protein products announced a moving of it s headquarters from minnetonka minnesota