Mark Peters is the Chief Executive Officer of Butterball® Farms, Inc., which was nationally recognized as one of The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For® from 2018 to 2024.
Long seen as one of the nation’s leading C-suite visionaries, Mark has been recognized with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award by Vistage; the 2014 People 1st Award presented by McDonald’s; and the 2008 Excellence in Urban Business Awards by Inner City 100.
Mark’s company, Butterball® Farms, Inc., is a second-generation family business based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Butterball® Farms is America’s leading culinary butter and margarine producer and creates custom butter flavors for some of America’s biggest brands.
His tenure at the company began at twelve, on the floor of the factory—an experience that taught him firsthand about the challenges that frontline workers face. At thirty he took over the company, determined to lead a financially successful business that would also enrich the lives of its workers.
In 2003, Mark organized a pioneering group of CEOs and community leaders to found The Source. This not-for-profit organization has helped thousands of workers navigate personal challenges interfering with their jobs and delivered an average annual return on investment of 329 percent to its partner organizations. The Source’s West Michigan-based model has been replicated in cities and regions across the United States. Mark is expanding its mission to help frontline workers maintain their jobs and progress into better positions within or across partner companies.
Mark wrote about the model used by The Source in his 2020 book, The Source: Using the Power of Collaboration to Stabilize Your Workforce and Impact Your Community.
Mark has appeared on podcasts ranging from Harvard Business School’s, Managing the Future of Work, to the BBC News, the Leadership Junkies podcast with Jeff Nischwitz and Craig Matthews, and his work and the work of The Source have been the subject of features and profiles in numerous locales.
An engaging speaker and storyteller, Mark lives in Grand Rapids with his daughter and dog and is an avid sailor, biker, and skier.
