Forty Under 40: Zachary McGee

Zachary McGee followed his father and grandfather, who both worked for Hudson Foods, into the poultry business.

A Rogers native, McGee graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in international business in 2012, then worked at Tyson’s Noel, Mo., processing plant, quickly moving to broiler manager. At 29, and one of the youngest in the position, he was promoted to senior live production manager for Tyson’s poultry complex in Corydon, Ind., lowering costs and improving profitability and efficiency. At Tyson, McGee was chosen for three leadership development programs. In 2020, he moved to Northwest Arkansas to join Simmons Foods, overseeing poultry grow-out operations for a new plant in Benton County.

McGee manages 119 employees, helps process 16 million pounds of chicken weekly, and oversees 200 contract poultry farmers in Arkansas and Oklahoma. He’s responsible for the feed mill that produces feed for the birds, operations at two poultry hatcheries and transportation of 2 million chickens weekly to Simmons’ processing plant.

McGee received the International Poultry Production and Processing’s 30 under 30 award. He’s on the Poultry Federation’s scholarship committee, helping raise $126,000 in scholarships for students interested in the poultry industry. His passion for teaching about the industry includes being a guest lecturer for poultry science classes at the University of Arkansas.

Hard on himself, McGee can bring “people together and allow people to excel on their own.”

His plans include moving to a complex manager role to run live operations and the plant side of the facility. Eventually, he’d like to move into a vice president or president role.

Away from work, McGee relaxes with his wife and dog and enjoys traveling worldwide.