NPFDA awarded the 2012 NPFDA Member of the Year Award to Ted Rueger, president of Eastern Poultry and Food Distributors. Rueger has been a dedicated member of the poultry industry, a NPFDA board member, as well as a member of other poultry and related associations. Rueger currently serves as vice president of NPFDA and is active on several committees. 

 

After his graduation from Duke in 2001 with a degree in economics, Rueger went to work as a sales representative for a medical device firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He then joined Eastern Poultry and Food Distributors in 2003. Eastern specializes in the wholesale distribution of poultry, beef, seafood, pork, and other products. Eastern Poultry’s clients include processing and manufacturing plants, foodservice institutions, retailers and restaurants, schools, universities and hospitals, and nonprofit organizations. They also source products from a variety of protein manufacturers worldwide.

 

Ted Rueger is the third generation to work for Eastern Poultry, a company founded by his grandfather, John, in 1954 and led by his father, Tom today. He was named president of Eastern in March of 2012. Ted remains an active member of the sales team at Eastern and places great value on the relationships with customers and suppliers that he has built over the past decade.

 

Rueger lives in Atlantic Beach, Florida with his college sweetheart, Lauren and their two sons Thomas (3) and William (1).

 

NPFDA presented Mr. William P. Roenigk, senior vice president of the National Chicken Council, with the 2013 NPFDA Poultry Industry Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

William (Bill) P. Roenigk is senior vice president of the National Chicken Council, the U.S. organization representing companies that produce, process, and market over 95 percent of the young meat chickens (broilers) in the United States. Bill joined the National Chicken Council (then National Broiler Council) in 1974. His responsibilities at the Council have included conducting economic and market analyses and presentation of broiler industry issues and concerns, both domestic and international to a variety of government bodies and non-government organizations. Additionally, he oversees projects that involve industry and consumer market surveys. Information from these surveys provides important insights and understandings in addressing marketing, regulatory, and legislative issues. Shortly after Roenigk joined the National Chicken Council, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office initiated the Agricultural Trade Advisory Committees for the various agricultural commodities. Roenigk has been appointed to the advisory committee for animals/animal products since the committee’s inception. As a member of the committee, he holds a confidential security clearance from the federal government. Prior to his present position of senior vice president, he was director of economic research and membership services for the National Broiler Council.

 

Before joining the Council, Bill was agricultural economist with the federal government's Office of Food/Cost-of-Living Council; agricultural economist with the Foreign Regional Analysis Division/Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; and agricultural economist with the Dairy, Livestock, and Poultry Division/Foreign Agricultural Service, USDA. Degrees include Bachelor of Science from The Pennsylvania State University and Master of Science from the University of Delaware. Both degrees are in agricultural economics. He has completed the course work in agricultural economics for a doctorate in agricultural economics at the University of Maryland.