CEOs come in all shapes and sizes and have different origin stories. Some come from the city, while others herald from the suburbs. Others trace their roots back to the farm. Read on to learn more about three prominent CEOs that grew up in the countryside, riding tractors, tending livestock, and working on family farms.
Diane Hendricks of ABC Supply
Diane Hendricks is the co-founder and board chair at ABC Supply, a construction materials company that sells roofing, siding, and windows. She’s become one of the wealthiest women in the United States with a net worth of $12 billion, having gained a fortune working alongside her late husband, Kenneth Hendricks. A self-made billionaire, Diane has run the company since 2007. In that time, she led two major acquisitions, buying Bradco in 2010 and L&W Supply in 2016. She attributes her life skills, work ethic, and motivation to work around the clock alongside her parents.
Hendricks spent her childhood in Wisconsin, where she and her nine sisters worked together to run the family dairy farm. There, she honed the essential disciplinary abilities that would later serve her well in the boardroom. Her success can be attributed to the grit and determination she has approached life from a very young age.
Today, Hendricks serves as the CEO of a corporation that operates in over 800 sites. Her company is the 23rd largest privately held business in the United States, generating $15 billion in revenue in 2021. In addition, she runs a career center where middle and high school students can learn valuable skills such as coding and construction. She explained to Forbes that the initiative’s purpose is to show young people “the value of work.” She is eager to share her instructive upbringing with a new company of people.
Frank VanderSloot of Melaleuca
Frank VanderSloot is the founder and executive chairman of the health and wellness company, Melaleuca, Inc. He served as Melaleuca CEO for 36 years before handing off those daily responsibilities to Jerry Felton earlier this year. VanderSloot’s company sells nutritional supplements, personal care products, environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, and more.
VanderSloot grew up on an 80-acre farm in Cocolallo, Idaho, where he managed the entire operation starting at 12. He milked cows, chopped wood, and cared for their livestock. Before attending college, he also worked a short stint on the Northern Pacific Railway and as a forest fighter.
Although VanderSloot spends a lot of time at his desk job, he has stayed true to his roots. In 1993, Vandersloot and his wife Belinda founded Riverbend Ranch, an Angus purebred operation with one of the largest commercial cattle herds in the United States. The ranch runs between 3,500 to 5,000 commercial cows and feeds out about 11,000 heads each year. The cows run on eight farms — in Idaho, Utah, Texas, Montana, and Hawaii.
Dennis Muilenburg of The Boeing Company
Dennis Muilenburg served as Chief Executive Officer of The Boeing Company, globally recognized as one of the largest corporations in the world. He was started in 2015 and worked there till 2019. A significant portion of Muilenburg’s success in his current position can be attributed to his rural upbringing.
Muilenburg spent his childhood on a farm in Ohio, where he stepped in to help his family and developed a profound respect for the hard work of the farmers around him. Following his departure from The Boeing Company, he is currently working as a consultant for Monarch Tractors. He is a massive advocate of the use of modern technology in agricultural settings and throughout the sector.
An upbringing on a farm sets the way for a more profound understanding of the lesser details that make up life. It instills in them the importance of perseverance, the law of the harvest, and the value of hard work. It is abundantly evident that Muilenburg has embraced these principles.
Final Thoughts
These three stories show that growing up on a farm can be a fertile ground that provides life experiences and character-building opportunities necessary for success. Diane Hendricks, Frank Vandersloot, and Dennis Muilenburg demonstrate that family farms and ranches can set people up for successful careers.
As farm kids, they teach us that despite things not always going as planned, it is essential to keep going no matter what obstacles you face. They have acquired the skills necessary to take care of their tasks, rapidly resolve issues, and perform what is required. They have the ability to pick themselves up off the ground after a setback and begin anew.
Lastly, children raised on farms are exposed to the complete cycle of life. They have experienced the heartbreak of losing a newborn animal or witnessing an animal pass away suddenly. When you sum it all up, you get people who put forth a lot of effort and recognize that life is a gift they must not take for granted.
