S M A L L B U S I N E S S M AT T E R S ACCIDENTAL BUTCHER Hill Meat Co.'s Jim Cheney turned a summer job into a lifelong career BY S T E V E K RU T | m e a t p o u l t r y @ s o s l a n d.c o m I 94 MEAT+ POULTRY | 07.20 | www.meatpoultry.com a fire under me, and I wound up working there for 18 years." In fact, Cheney became so diligent at his job that his boss later fired the entire crew to make him the foreman. The owner then rehired the crew and turned operational responsibilities over to Cheney. A few years later, he was given the opportunity to buy into the company - Wenatchee Packing Co. - as a minority shareholder. The remaining interest was sold to a dentist who had little operational knowledge in the meat industry. The two did not get along and the dentist called in a business analyst to push his Photos: Hill Meat Co. f the Washington state cherry harvest hadn't been late the year Jim Cheney was looking for a summer job as an 18-year-old, he might not have ended up in the meat business. Now the successful chief executive officer of Pendleton, Ore.-based Hill Meat Co., Cheney recalled how he applied for work at a meat packing plant when the cherry picking was put on hold. "I had never seen a slaughter plant, but I told the guy hiring 'I think I could do it if you showed me how.' He hired me, then told me I wouldn't last three days," he said. "That lithttp://www.meatpoultry.com