Joseph C. Grendys (born 1961 or 1962) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

who is the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO) and president of

Koch Foods Koch Foods is a food processor and distributor in Park Ridge, Illinois that is listed by ''Forbes'' magazine as number 125 on the list of the largest private companies in the US. As of October 2014, the company had a revenue of $3 billion, and ...

, a chicken processing company. As of June 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$3.1 billion.

Early life

Grendys was born in Chicago in the early 1960s. His father was a butcher who was also involved in the wholesale and retail meat trade. His grandparents emigrated to the United States from Poland. He was educated at Holy Cross High School in River Grove and worked at

part-time while a student. In 1984, he received a bachelor's degree in Finance and Marketing from Loyola University.

Career

Grendys started full-time at

in the mid-1980s, when it had just 13 employees. The owner Fred Koch was one of his father's customers, having started Koch Foods in 1973, and offered him a 50% equity share in the business. He bought out Fred Koch in 1992. Grendys' companies now slaughter, ship and sell chicken using the Koch Foods,

Antioch Farms Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Koine Greek phonology#Learned pronunciation, 4th century BC until early Roman period, Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi ...

, Preferred Foods and Rogers Royal brands. Koch slaughters over 12 million chickens and processes over of chicken every week. In 2011, Koch employed 14,000 people, had an annual turnover of $2.8 billion and was one of America's five largest "fully-integrated chicken processors." In a 2014 interview, Grendys stated that he planned to acquire more companies and that he might branch out into another protein, but that he was "not sure what that protein would be yet." Rather than running a chicken company, he sees it as "the business of converting corn and soybeans into meat protein." In August 2020, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' estimated his net worth at US$2.3 billion. Koch Foods has been dogged by accusations of racism and abusive working conditions. On August 7, 2019,

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

raided several food processing plants in Mississippi, one of which was the

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton ...

plant of Koch Foods. Three buses were used to shuttle off workers alleged to be undocumented.

Personal life

Grendys lives "relatively modestly in the Chicago bungalow where he grew up and drives a beat-up old Cadillac." Grendys also owns a $3million house in Chattanooga, Tn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grendys, Joseph 1960s births Living people American billionaires American people of Polish descent Businesspeople from Chicago Loyola University Chicago alumni