“The Greatest Gift You Can Give Someone Is Your Time.”

Steve Maggard is a seasoned executive, board advisor, and business leader whose career spans more than four decades of leadership across food service equipment, manufacturing, global sales, operations, strategy, and organizational development. Having recently transitioned from full-time corporate leadership into consulting, mentoring, and board service, Steve brings the perspective of an executive who has experienced virtually every stage of organizational growth and leadership evolution. His approach is grounded in servant leadership and a fundamental belief that sustainable business performance depends not only on sound strategy and disciplined execution, but also on understanding the people responsible for bringing that strategy to life. His personal philosophy—“The greatest gift you can give someone is your time”—reflects the people-centered values that have shaped his career and continue to guide his work with executives, organizations, and boards.

Steve built the foundation of his executive career during an extraordinary tenure of more than four decades with Henny Penny Corporation, a globally recognized manufacturer of commercial food service equipment. Beginning his career with the organization in 1982, he progressed through increasingly influential leadership positions encompassing sales, customer experience, operations, and enterprise management. His advancement from sales leadership to executive vice president, senior vice president, and ultimately president gave him a comprehensive understanding of how organizations create value across functions. Rather than viewing sales, operations, finance, manufacturing, customer experience, and people development as independent disciplines, Steve learned to connect them as parts of a larger operating system focused on customers, employees, and sustainable performance.

Global business development was a defining element of Steve’s career. As Vice President of Global Sales, he spent decades developing markets, strengthening strategic customer relationships, and navigating the complexities of international commerce. His professional experience has extended across approximately 60 countries, giving him substantial exposure to different cultures, business practices, customer expectations, and economic environments. His work in markets including China and France contributed to a broad international perspective and an ability to evaluate business opportunities through both commercial and cultural lenses. That experience remains particularly valuable to organizations seeking to expand internationally, strengthen global partnerships, or develop leadership teams capable of operating effectively across geographic and cultural boundaries.

As Steve’s responsibilities expanded, so did his influence on the broader customer and organizational experience. His tenure as Senior Vice President of Global Customer Experience placed him at the intersection of strategy, sales, service, product development, and long-term customer relationships. He developed a strong appreciation for the importance of listening carefully to customers while ensuring that internal teams have the structure, resources, and leadership necessary to deliver on organizational promises. His expertise encompasses new business development, key account management, sales management, pricing, forecasting, marketing strategy, product development, supply chain, purchasing, process improvement, and customer satisfaction. This cross-functional perspective enables him to look beyond isolated business challenges and understand how decisions in one area can influence performance throughout an enterprise.

Steve ultimately served as President of Henny Penny from January 2020 through June 2024, culminating decades of leadership within the organization. In the president’s role, he brought together his experience in global sales, manufacturing, operations, financial management, strategic planning, and organizational leadership. He understands the responsibilities that accompany executive decision-making, including managing competing priorities, evaluating financial performance, developing leaders, maintaining organizational alignment, and ensuring that strategic ambitions translate into disciplined execution. His financial fluency includes P&L management, budgeting, forecasting, income statements, balance sheets, pricing, and the broader financial considerations necessary to evaluate organizational health and strategic investments.

A particularly important dimension of Steve’s leadership philosophy is his commitment to people. Throughout his career, he has emphasized team building, cross-functional leadership, coaching, mentoring, and the creation of environments in which employees can contribute meaningfully to organizational success. He believes companies can achieve strong financial results while still overlooking the human consequences of their decisions. In board and advisory settings, Steve therefore seeks to provide a thoughtful voice that connects strategy and performance with culture, leadership, and employee impact. His experience has taught him that the strongest organizations do not have to choose between results and people; rather, enduring performance often comes from leaders who understand how closely the two are connected.

Steve also brings practical experience with the Entrepreneurial Operating System, or EOS, including its integration into organizational leadership and operating practices. His understanding of EOS complements his broader expertise in strategic planning, operational management, process improvement, accountability, and leadership alignment. He is especially interested in organizations that use, or are considering using, EOS to create greater clarity and execution discipline. Combined with decades of executive experience, this operating-system perspective enables Steve to help leadership teams move beyond conceptual strategy toward measurable priorities, stronger accountability, and more consistent execution.

Since transitioning from full-time corporate leadership, Steve has focused significant energy on consulting, coaching, and mentoring executives and organizations. He enjoys helping companies develop strategies while supporting leaders as they work through the practical realities of implementing them. This next stage of his career allows him to apply lessons accumulated over approximately 45 years without needing to occupy the chief executive’s chair. Instead, he can serve as an experienced sounding board—asking thoughtful questions, challenging assumptions when necessary, helping leaders see issues from multiple perspectives, and sharing practical insights developed through decades of executive responsibility.

Board service is a natural extension of that commitment. Steve currently contributes to three advisory boards and has accumulated meaningful governance experience across corporate, financial, and nonprofit environments. His advisory work includes service with a significant wealth management organization, where his value is rooted not in being a career wealth management professional but in his extensive experience leading and understanding people. That distinction illustrates an important dimension of Steve’s board value: he brings an independent operating perspective that can complement specialized technical expertise already present around the table. He understands how leadership decisions are experienced throughout an organization and can help boards consider the cultural and human implications alongside financial and strategic considerations.

Steve’s commitment to service is also demonstrated through his nonprofit board experience. He spent six years serving with Ronald McDonald House in Dayton, Ohio, and has also served with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. These experiences broadened his governance perspective beyond commercial enterprise and reinforced his belief that leadership carries responsibilities to communities as well as organizations. Whether advising a business, supporting a nonprofit mission, mentoring an executive, or participating in board discussions, Steve approaches service with the same underlying objective: to invest his experience and time in helping others become more successful.

From an industry perspective, Steve is particularly well positioned to contribute to companies operating in food service, food service equipment, manufacturing, international business, and related business-to-business environments. His experience also makes him relevant to organizations facing questions around sales transformation, international expansion, operational discipline, executive leadership, succession, organizational culture, customer strategy, and people development. While his deepest experience is rooted in food service and manufacturing, his leadership capabilities are transferable across industries because they address fundamental business challenges: building capable teams, understanding customers, allocating resources wisely, maintaining financial discipline, and translating strategy into execution.

Steve brings additional strength as a communicator, negotiator, relationship builder, and experienced representative of organizations in complex business environments. Years of global sales and executive leadership required him to communicate across functions, cultures, seniority levels, and stakeholder groups. He has participated in public speaking engagements and executive presentations throughout his career, complementing his ability to listen carefully and communicate ideas in practical terms. His style is collaborative rather than performative; he seeks first to understand the people, circumstances, and objectives involved before offering a perspective.

Today, Steve is interested in board, advisory, and consulting opportunities where his experience can have a meaningful impact. He is open to travel, with a preference for opportunities that can be managed on a more regional basis, and is particularly drawn to organizations where leadership values people as an essential part of business performance. He does not approach board service simply as another professional credential. He serves because he enjoys helping companies succeed and believes that decades of accumulated experience are most valuable when they are shared.

At this stage of his career, Steve’s value is found in the combination of experiences he brings to the table: the commercial instincts of a global sales executive, the operational understanding of a manufacturing leader, the financial perspective of a president, the strategic discipline of an EOS practitioner, and the empathy of a servant leader. He understands both the numbers organizations must deliver and the people responsible for delivering them. His career demonstrates that leadership can be simultaneously demanding and compassionate, globally ambitious and locally grounded, strategically disciplined and deeply human. For organizations seeking an experienced board member or advisor who can contribute perspective, challenge thinking constructively, and remain focused on sustainable success, Steve offers a distinctive combination of executive experience, global insight, practical judgment, and people-centered leadership.

Character:
Steve exemplifies servant leadership through a career built around investing in people, developing teams, mentoring leaders, and contributing his experience to organizations and communities. His belief that “the greatest gift you can give someone is your time” is reflected in the thoughtful, people-centered approach he brings to leadership, consulting, and board service.

Knowledge:
More than four decades of executive experience have given Steve substantial knowledge across food service, manufacturing, international business, sales, operations, finance, customer experience, strategic planning, and EOS implementation. His progression from global sales leadership to the presidency of Henny Penny provides him with an unusually broad understanding of how commercial, operational, financial, and human considerations intersect inside an organization.

Strategic:
Steve approaches strategy as more than an annual planning exercise, focusing on the connection between priorities, people, accountability, financial performance, and execution. His global experience across approximately 60 countries and his leadership of complex business functions enable him to evaluate opportunities and challenges from both enterprise-level and practical operating perspectives.

Communication:
An experienced communicator who has spent decades building relationships with employees, executives, customers, partners, and stakeholders across diverse cultures and business environments. He combines the confidence to offer an independent point of view with the listening skills and empathy necessary to make that perspective constructive and useful.