MEAT+POULTRY - June 2015 - 8

C O M M E N TA R Y

Finding work-life harmony
It's true what they say: "Find a career you love and you'll
never work a day in your life." It seems that when you
find your work life and your non-work life increasingly
overlapping and happily coexisting, it might just be
affirmation that you've reached your ideal career destination.
It's certainly true for me, as I am constantly learning,
buying and experimenting with and even competitively
cooking meat and poultry products. When it's time to get
to work, I am privileged to have the opportunity to pick
the brains of industry all-stars and write about people in
the meat industry who share the same passion.
It's also true for two
influential leaders in the industry
I visited this past month. Sally
Grimes, who is the subject of
this month's cover story, shared
that as a first-generation IndianAmerican, food played a central
role in her life growing up and
still does today at home and at
work, as president and chief
global growth officer with Tyson
Foods Inc. She refers to herself
and her two kids and husband as
dyed-in-the-wool "foodies."
Not only are they food
Grimes realized adventure seekers, Grimes says
her family is on a mission to
this was the
travel to the Seven Wonders of
region where
the World, with just one to go.
the world's first Recently visiting the salt mines
in Machu Picchu in Peru with her
dehydrated
family, Grimes soon realized this
meat was made. was the region where the world's
first dehydrated meat was made,
striking a chord that connected her with her job when
she least expected it. I could see that connection in her
eyes and hear it in the words she uses in describing the
many food products and brands she is responsible for
growing at Tyson.
"Food has always been pretty integral in my life,"
Grimes says.
In a more hands-on manner, food has been the focus
of Danny Dupree's life, too. Before spending 33 years at
Bar-S Foods Co., Dupree grew up on a ranch in Oklahoma.
After high school he went to college not far from home
to get a finance degree and went on to become a certified

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 06.15 | www.meatpoultry.com

public accountant while starting his career at the Bar-S
processing plant in Clinton, Okla.
"This is home," says Dupree, who is now vice
president of operations at Bar-S, a hot dog, sliced meat
and bacon-processing company based in Phoenix.
During a recent visit to Clinton to present him with
MEAT+POULTRY's 2015 Operations Executive of the
Year award, it was easy to see how his work life and
personal passions overlap. A few years ago, Dupree built
a sprawling ranch just a few miles from the plant, where
he raises and breeds award-winning cattle.
He admits it isn't uncommon to work 12-hour days at
the plant, but he always finds time to oversee and manage
his ranch. It's a life he wouldn't trade for almost anything
because he enjoys both.
"I do two things," Dupree says, "Bar-S and my ranch."
During my visit, he was proud to show off the Clinton
processing plant where he started working in 1982, but
equally as excited to walk me around the pens of his
prized livestock on his picturesque ranch, which stretches
out behind his home. Like Grimes, the passion for what
he does at work each day and as a modern-day Ben
Cartwright away from work is unmistakable in his words
and in his eyes.
From the enthusiasm and expertise of Sally Grimes
as an agent of growth in Chicago to Danny Dupree's
soft-spoken, hands-on approach to operational excellence
from the plains of Oklahoma, it's easy to see why the
executives with some of the industry's most successful
companies identify and covet the talents of the all-stars
within their enterprises.
The key is finding the people who are lucky enough to
think they never really work.
J O E L C R E WS, E D I TO R- I N - C H I E F | J C R E WS @ S OS L A N D.CO M
http://www.meatpoultry.com
MEAT+POULTRY - June 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MEAT+POULTRY - June 2015
