Kenneth Monfort
Ken Monfort became a rancher by accident. His older brother, Richard, who served in WWII, was assumed to be the rancher of his generation, but the family received the awful news that Lt. Richard Monfort was missing in action and presumed dead. Alongside his father, the task of running the family business fell to Ken.
With beef prices disastrously low from the Great Depression, Ken's dad realized his only hope was to strengthen and expand his market. Fresh beef in the urban market was one of many seasonal delicacies, so the elder Monfort began feeding cattle year-round, letting him sell at advantageous prices all year. The technique revitalized the beef industry. In 1970, Ken Monfort succeeded his father as CEO and turned the business into a Fortune 500 company. He relocated meat packing from the city back to rural areas, closer to feedlots.
By the 1950s, supermarkets and consumers were end-users of Monfort meats. At great expense, stores employed butchers to separate the carcass into usable meats, a laborious process that wasted some of the carcasses. Under Ken's leadership, the company began to do this essential butchering in-house, cutting the carcass into what was known as primal cuts before shipping it to stores.
After a long time working in his family's industry, Ken moved into retirement from his work to pursue more philanthropic opportunities.
Monfort's contributions to Colorado and the west were noted when he received the prestigious "Citizen of the West" award from the National Western Stock Show, which honored him as "a pioneer in the livestock industry and community leader in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West."
Members of the Monfort family continue to support the University of Northern Colorado and have funded more than 800 student scholarships during the past ten years.
With beef prices disastrously low from the Great Depression, Ken's dad realized his only hope was to strengthen and expand his market. Fresh beef in the urban market was one of many seasonal delicacies, so the elder Monfort began feeding cattle year-round, letting him sell at advantageous prices all year. The technique revitalized the beef industry. In 1970, Ken Monfort succeeded his father as CEO and turned the business into a Fortune 500 company. He relocated meat packing from the city back to rural areas, closer to feedlots.
By the 1950s, supermarkets and consumers were end-users of Monfort meats. At great expense, stores employed butchers to separate the carcass into usable meats, a laborious process that wasted some of the carcasses. Under Ken's leadership, the company began to do this essential butchering in-house, cutting the carcass into what was known as primal cuts before shipping it to stores.
After a long time working in his family's industry, Ken moved into retirement from his work to pursue more philanthropic opportunities.
Monfort's contributions to Colorado and the west were noted when he received the prestigious "Citizen of the West" award from the National Western Stock Show, which honored him as "a pioneer in the livestock industry and community leader in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West."
Members of the Monfort family continue to support the University of Northern Colorado and have funded more than 800 student scholarships during the past ten years.