Bill Even

Bill Even is the chief executive officer for the National Pork Board, where he has responsibility for leading Pork Checkoff-funded research, promotion and education projects on behalf of the nation’s 60,000 pork producers.

Let’s Connect!

Background

Prior to his employment with the National Pork Board, Bill served as the Global Industry Relations Lead and Commercial Unit Lead for DuPont Pioneer from 2010 to 2016.  

Bill also served as South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture from 2007 to 2010 where he managed six department divisions: Agriculture Regulatory Services, Agriculture Development, State Fair, Wildland Fire, Resource Conservation and Forestry, and Agricultural Policy.   

Bill also served as Deputy Secretary of Tourism and State Development, Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, State Energy Policy Director, and Policy Advisor and Executive branch lobbyist for SD Governor Mike Rounds.

Education

Bill holds an A.S. in Agricultural Production from Lake Area Technical Institute, a B.S. in Agricultural Business from South Dakota State University; and a Juris Doctorate from Drake University Law School.  

While in law school, Bill served as Executive Editor of the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law, clerked for the law firm of Hefner and Bergkamp, P.C., and interned with the Soil and Water Conservation Society and the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee in Washington, D.C. 

Bill and his family own and operate a diversified crop and livestock farm near Humboldt, SD. The farm was homesteaded in 1884 by his great-grandfather and Bill began farming in 1983.  Bill and his wife, Janell, have three children and live in Adel, Iowa.