Farmer Focus, the Harrisonburg, Va.-based humane and traceable chicken brand, has appointed Bill Schellpeper to its board of directors, effective August 2026, recruiting a veteran who spent more than a decade running one of its primary premium-segment rivals.
Schellpeper joins after more than 17 years in poultry leadership, most recently as president of Smart Chicken, where he operated the brand as an independently managed business within Tyson Foods. During that tenure he scaled Smart Chicken from a regional label into a nationally distributed premium brand, while also serving on Tyson's Poultry Leadership Team and Senior Leadership Team. His operational background spans sales, marketing, and growth strategy across the higher-welfare chicken segment — precisely the territory Farmer Focus is competing for at retail and foodservice.
A Competitor Becomes an Ally
"For over a decade, Bill Schellpeper was one of the fiercest competitors we faced," said Stephen Shepard, CEO of Farmer Focus. "I have always deeply respected and looked up to him. Today, the game changed completely." The candid framing underscores the strategic intent: Farmer Focus is not adding a passive board seat but recruiting someone with direct, current knowledge of how large-scale premium poultry competes at the national level.
Schellpeper's board portfolio extends beyond poultry. He currently serves on the board of Friesen's Inc., a Midwest Growth Partners portfolio company that designs and manufactures automation and processing systems for food manufacturers, where he also served as interim CEO from March to June 2026. He is also co-founder of Dot Provisions LLC. That combination of supply-chain engineering exposure and co-founder experience adds dimensions to Farmer Focus's board that go beyond brand management alone.
What It Means for the Premium Poultry Market
Farmer Focus was founded in 2014 on a model that breaks from conventional contract poultry: its 120-plus growers retain ownership of their flocks and are paid on a fixed schedule rather than a competitive ranking system. The company positions that structure as a competitive differentiator with retailers and consumers increasingly focused on supply-chain transparency and animal welfare claims — a segment that has drawn intensifying competition from both independent brands and large integrators offering tiered welfare programs.
Adding Schellpeper gives Farmer Focus a board member who has navigated exactly that competitive pressure from the other side. His experience building Smart Chicken's distribution and brand equity within a major integrator's portfolio could prove valuable as Farmer Focus seeks to grow national retail penetration without diluting the farmer-ownership model that defines its positioning. For operators and retailers sourcing in the premium and certified-humane poultry category, the appointment signals that Farmer Focus is investing in the commercial infrastructure needed to scale.
The move also reflects a broader consolidation of talent around independent, mission-driven food brands. As covered in our analysis of emerging trends in sustainable protein and the competitive dynamics playing out across premium poultry and supply-chain transparency, established executives are increasingly migrating from large integrators to challenger brands seeking institutional credibility alongside growth capital.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
