“Set the standard, earn the trust, and never stop improving.”
Zac Dwyer is an entrepreneur, business owner, operations leader, military veteran, and former Texas State Trooper whose career has been defined by responsibility, adaptability, and a willingness to lead from the front. Based in Lubbock, Texas, Zac has developed a diverse professional background spanning equine operations, mechanical services, wild game processing, agriculture, insurance, law enforcement, military service, sales, construction, and heavy equipment operations. Rather than following a conventional path to leadership, Zac has built his experience through progressively demanding roles in which results depend on sound judgment, personal accountability, strong relationships, and the ability to solve problems in real time. His professional philosophy is straightforward: learn quickly, take ownership of the outcome, treat people with respect, and continually raise the standard of performance.
Entrepreneurship has been a defining element of Zac’s professional development. He has launched and operated multiple businesses, including a mechanic shop and an equine training operation, gaining firsthand experience in the realities of building a company from the ground up. As an owner, Zac has been responsible not simply for delivering a service, but also for attracting customers, maintaining relationships, managing employees, controlling day-to-day operations, and protecting the reputation of the business. He successfully built and ultimately sold his mechanic-shop business while continuing to develop his equine enterprise. These experiences have given Zac an owner’s perspective on leadership: every decision has consequences for customers, employees, operations, financial performance, and long-term credibility.
Through KZ Performance Horses and KZ Equine, Zac has combined his agricultural and mechanical capabilities with business leadership and customer relationship management. His operation has maintained approximately 30 horses at a time while employing a team to support the demands of the facility and its clients. Zac’s work encompasses training horses ranging from pleasure animals to performance prospects, starting young horses, managing cattle used as roping stock, maintaining facilities, and coordinating the many operational details required to keep a working equine business functioning effectively. Equally important is the human side of the enterprise. Horse owners entrust valuable animals to his care, requiring Zac to communicate consistently, establish realistic expectations, demonstrate progress, and build relationships strong enough to generate repeat business and referrals.
Zac’s leadership capabilities extend well beyond his own businesses. As an Operations Supervisor with Lonestar Wild Game in Lubbock, he has managed and operated a wild game processing facility while supervising crews ranging from approximately five to twelve employees. His responsibilities have included training new employees in processing procedures, maintaining necessary supplies, coordinating workflow, addressing customer needs face to face, and ensuring the team can perform effectively in a fast-moving environment. The role has strengthened Zac’s ability to balance operational efficiency with employee development and customer service. His management approach reflects years of practical experience: communicate expectations clearly, teach people how to perform the work correctly, remain accessible when problems arise, and be willing to work alongside the team when circumstances demand it.
Zac’s experience as a self-employed mechanic and owner of Local Boys Garage further developed his operational and commercial instincts. Working on both diesel and gasoline vehicles, Zac developed capabilities ranging from routine maintenance and diagnostics to major repairs and engine rebuilds. He also contracted with businesses to maintain their equipment, requiring reliability, technical problem-solving, scheduling discipline, and an understanding of the operational cost associated with equipment downtime. Running his own mechanic shop added another dimension to Zac’s leadership experience by requiring him to simultaneously manage customers, employees, equipment, workflow, and the broader responsibilities of business ownership. His mechanical expertise remains an important part of his professional foundation and reinforces his ability to understand operations from both managerial and hands-on perspectives.
Public service represents another major chapter in Zac’s career. As a Texas State Trooper, he worked in traffic enforcement, crash investigation, criminal interdiction, and public safety. Zac became deeply involved in serious and fatality crash investigations, including the use of GPS mapping to document and reconstruct scenes. These responsibilities demanded accuracy, composure, integrity, situational awareness, and the ability to make consequential decisions under pressure. His work also involved efforts related to missing children, narcotics interdiction, and intoxicated motorists. The experience strengthened Zac’s investigative mindset and reinforced an appreciation for disciplined processes, detailed documentation, risk awareness, and clear communication—qualities that continue to influence his approach to business and leadership.
Zac’s commitment to service was also shaped by more than a decade in the Army National Guard, where he attained the rank of Sergeant E5 and completed two deployments to Iraq. His military responsibilities evolved from serving as a gunner and driver to being selected for a personal security detail and later serving as a lead scout gun truck commander. These assignments placed a premium on preparation, teamwork, accountability, situational awareness, and leadership under demanding circumstances. As a noncommissioned officer, Zac learned that leadership meant far more than holding rank; it meant setting the example, maintaining standards, looking after the team, and accepting responsibility when circumstances became difficult. The lessons gained through military service continue to form an important foundation for how Zac approaches employees, customers, challenges, and organizational responsibility.
Zac’s earlier career in agriculture and insurance further broadened his analytical and operational capabilities. As a crop insurance adjuster, he evaluated agricultural losses and traveled throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico to assist with significant workloads following severe weather events. He also supported claims and compliance processes while developing extensive experience with GPS mapping, including mapping agricultural fields to verify insured acreage and helping resolve questions involving acreage reporting. This work required Zac to combine field observations, technical information, documentation, customer interaction, and sound judgment. His agricultural experience also provided extensive exposure to loaders, backhoes, road maintainers, water trucks, skid steers, tractors, farming implements, and other equipment necessary for productive ranch and farming operations.
Versatility is one of the strongest themes running throughout Zac’s career. He has worked in construction, outdoor advertising, towing and recovery, ranch operations, automotive repair, insurance, law enforcement, agriculture, equine management, and processing operations. His experience includes welding, fabrication, fencing, equipment operation, facility maintenance, mechanical diagnostics, GPS mapping, inventory management, Microsoft Office applications, sales, marketing, employee training, and customer relations. Although these capabilities span very different industries, they share a common thread: each requires practical problem-solving, adaptability, and the willingness to become proficient in unfamiliar environments. Zac describes much of his expertise as self-taught, reflecting a learning style centered on curiosity, persistence, observation, and hands-on application.
Sales and communication have likewise been consistent elements of Zac’s professional life. As a business owner, he understands that technical competence alone does not build a sustainable company. Customers must understand the value being delivered, employees must understand expectations, and business relationships must be maintained through credibility and consistent communication. In the equine industry in particular, Zac interacts directly with the public, maintains ongoing contact with horse owners, develops new client relationships, and continually represents both himself and his business. His experience in outside sales, insurance, service businesses, law enforcement, and customer-facing operational roles has taught him how to communicate with people from varied backgrounds while maintaining a practical and straightforward approach.
Education and continuous learning complement Zac’s extensive field experience. He pursued studies related to Animal Science and Pre-Veterinary Studies at Texas Tech University as well as agricultural education at Eastern New Mexico University. Zac has also held professional credentials across several areas during his career, including peace officer, insurance, commercial driving, and related professional licensing. His ability to navigate Microsoft programs, digital documentation, PDF creation, scanning systems, GPS technology, and specialized mapping applications demonstrates a comfort with integrating technology into traditionally hands-on environments. More importantly, Zac’s career shows a repeated willingness to learn new systems quickly and translate that knowledge into practical performance.
Across each stage of his career, Zac has demonstrated a leadership style rooted in personal accountability rather than title. Whether supervising employees at a processing facility, training horses and managing an equine operation, repairing commercial equipment, investigating a serious highway incident, operating machinery on a ranch, or leading soldiers in a deployed environment, Zac has consistently worked in positions where others depend on his decisions and follow-through. He brings an uncommon combination of entrepreneurial perspective, operational knowledge, mechanical aptitude, investigative discipline, customer-facing experience, and team leadership. That breadth enables Zac to understand challenges from multiple perspectives and move comfortably between higher-level decisions and the practical realities of implementation.
Looking forward, Zac brings organizations the perspective of someone who has experienced leadership as an owner, supervisor, public servant, tradesman, salesperson, investigator, and military noncommissioned officer. He understands that sustainable performance is ultimately built through people, disciplined execution, adaptability, accountability, and trust. His career demonstrates a willingness to enter challenging situations, learn what is necessary, and accept responsibility for delivering results. Whether building a business, developing employees, strengthening operations, serving customers, or solving complex field problems, Zac approaches leadership with a consistent principle: set a high standard personally, earn credibility through action, and continually find ways to improve.
Character:
Zac’s character is grounded in service, accountability, resilience, integrity, and a strong personal work ethic developed through entrepreneurship, military service, law enforcement, and business ownership. He leads by example and places significant value on earning trust through consistency, responsibility, and the quality of his work.
Knowledge:
He possesses broad practical knowledge spanning operations management, equine and agricultural operations, automotive and diesel mechanics, heavy equipment, employee training, customer relations, sales, insurance, investigations, GPS mapping, and public safety. His ability to learn independently and apply new knowledge in demanding environments allows him to bridge technical expertise with effective business leadership.
Strategic:
Zac approaches strategy from an owner-operator perspective, recognizing that decisions involving people, customers, equipment, resources, and operations ultimately affect the sustainability and performance of an organization. His experience starting businesses, managing teams, developing customers, allocating resources, and solving operational problems enables him to identify practical solutions while keeping longer-term objectives in view.
Communication:
Years of customer-facing business ownership, sales, employee supervision, law enforcement, military leadership, and training have made communication central to Zac’s leadership approach. He is accustomed to explaining expectations clearly, developing relationships with diverse stakeholders, earning customer confidence, training employees, and communicating effectively in both everyday business settings and high-pressure environments.
