LEADERSHIP
Joe Piperato, Chairman/CEO
Joseph (Joe) Piperato is Chairman and CEO of J&G Foods, Inc., positions he has maintained since founding the company in 1999. He has 51 years of experience in the meat industry in various roles that include VP of Sales & Marketing and Senior VP for both public and private companies. He is proud to have been mentored early in his career by a meat industry Hall-of-Fame member.
He played a key role in growing a privately owned Texas meat processor, focused on the foodservice industry nationally, from $10 million annual sales to more than $100 million annually in just twelve years. The company was then acquired by a publically traded food company.
Joe has led J&G Foods on a path of steady growth over its 20 year existence. In the process, he re-engineered the company from a foodservice platform to one focused on supermarkets. Today, J&G Foods is one of America’s leading custom case-ready processors of fresh organic and “ABF” meats.
Joe holds a BS in Hotel Administration from Cornell University; he also undertook graduate studies at George Washington and Northwestern universities. A portion of his “giving back” to the meat industry includes developing and teaching for several years the first “meats course” at the University of Houston Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management.
Bill Leva, President
Bill Leva was appointed President of J&G Foods, Inc in April 2019. He previously functioned as J&G’s Chief Operating Officer. He is a life-long New Englander who has over 40 years in food manufacturing with the last 24 years in an upper management capacity (COO, Vice President, or Director). His background started in quality assurance and he merged into the combination of quality and operations during the Total Quality Management wave.
He has managed both medium sized and multi-plant companies in the meat, snack foods and confectionery industries. He is a strong proponent of Lean principles and is passionate about applying them to his daily practices. He has lectured food technology students at conferences on the value of incorporating Lean education as part of their curriculum.
Bill’s education includes a Bachelor of Science in Operations Management from Northeastern University, a Master of Science in Total Quality Systems from Anna Maria College and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from Villanova University.