Agriculture 2024: SHANE SMITH

Smith became CEO of Smithfield Foods in 2021, just as Smithfield, the world’s largest pork product manufacturer and hog producer, announced an end to slaughter operations in its hometown of Smithfield, the country’s self-proclaimed  “ham capital.”

In 2023, Smith navigated headwinds of low sales and high costs in the U.S. pork market. That year, Smithfield announced plans to close a processing plant in North Carolina and shutter 35 hog farms in Missouri and 26 farms in Utah. The tough market conditions added financial difficulties to political concern among conservative politicians over potential Chinese ownership of U.S. agricultural land and control of U.S. pork production. Smithfield was acquired in 2013 by Hong Kong-based WH Group.

 In October 2023, WH Group announced it is planning to take Smithfield public, with shares possibly available in 2024, a move that would likely restore Smithfield to the Fortune 500. The first quarter of the year buoyed optimism in the company, with profits showing what WH Group called “substantial improvement” in its U.S. operations. 

A graduate of the University of Mount Olive and William & Mary, Smith started his career at Smithfield in 2003 as a financial analyst.