Stephen Shepard's Linkedin Analytics

First and foremost, my family is my absolute priority in my life and I am a father and a husband to an incredible wife and son. I have worked in the poultry industry for most of my career and have been blessed to have learned from some of the most passionate professionals I could ever hope to encounter. They taught me the power of servant leadership, which is the framework for how I lead. My career has given me exposure to nearly all aspects of the poultry industry. Those experiences shaped the three key pillars of my leadership:  People  Quality  Safety I believe putting people first is critical in an industry that often does just the opposite. I believe in creating an environment where every team member, from our farmers to our hourly front-line workers to our executive team, can create careers of meaning, opportunity, and balance. When you take care of your people well they will take care of business, and to me that means delivering a quality product. Our unique business model at Farmer Focus puts our farming partners back in control of their farms and their futures. By producing a one-of-a-kind organic, humanely-raised, sustainable and traceable product, our people have something to be proud of – and we know we are operationalizing our vision: to promote and protect generational family farms. The safety of our team members is paramount to me. Over the course of my tenure in the poultry industry it’s been my privilege to create award-winning safety programs that have helped turn companies around. I am keenly focused on operational excellence with a focus on building cultures of accountability and learning. When we raise the bar on expectations we will see new passion, innovation, commitment, and performance occur. My Christian faith is the foundation for my life. I try to lead like Jesus and 1 Corinthians 16:14 is my guiding principle: Do everything in love.