The Wenger Group Inc. has been a hallmark family-owned company headquartered in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for the last 80 years. The company was founded by Mel Wenger in 1944 and grew to be a very large agricultural business that is most recognized in the marketplace by one of its largest subsidiaries, Wenger Feeds. Barry Shaw, Mel’s son-in-law, took the helm of Wenger in the mid-1970s and has been leading the company as chief executive officer for over three decades.

For the last 20 years, Shaw has been executive chairman of the board and is known by many agricultural companies and farmers throughout Central Pennsylvania. Anyone who knows Shaw recognizes him by the immediate interest he shows in others and the humble nature of his personality, but he has been a formidable force in the agricultural industry. After a long and successful career, Shaw is going to assume the role of chairman emeritus to the board at the beginning of the company’s fiscal year in October. This will allow him to spend more time on some of his favorite passions of photography, grandchildren and just being in the outdoors.

Phil Rohrbaugh joined the Wenger organization in 2018 as its CEO and vice chairman of the board. Rohrbaugh has led the company through a transformation effort where it consummated numerous acquisitions and ventures, expanded into specialty protein areas, vertically integrated into its supply chain, and strengthened its internal infrastructure. The company has now grown to approximately 25 operating locations and almost 1,000 team members. At the beginning of the next fiscal year on October 1, 2024, Rohrbaugh will relinquish the CEO role and assume the role of executive chairman of the board. The board has decided to separate all governance activities from the CEO role under the executive chairman, but Rohrbaugh will continue to engage around strategy and key strategic initiatives working collaboratively with the new CEO. He will also continue to serve as a trustee and a trust advisor to Shaw family ownership trusts.

Abby Lowry, Barry Shaw’s daughter, leads the Shaw Family Office and has been on The Wenger Group Board for five years. She is a member of the board’s human resource, audit, and corporate risk committees and chairs the governance & nominating committee. With Rohrbaugh moving into the executive chairman role, Lowry will assume the position of vice chairman of the board as she advocates for all of the grandchildren to get involved in the company business and keeps a watchful eye on the company’s culture, which has been so critical to its success. Lowry is also the lead trustee in the trusts, which hold the ownership interests of the company, and is active in the Shaw Family Foundation.

The board is very excited about the succession that is occurring at the governance level, which is viewed to be critically important to sustaining The Wenger Group as a growing and successful private company, passionate about sustaining the agriculture industry and independent farmers in the region.

The Wenger Group Inc., a leading Northeast family-owned food, agricultural products, and agricultural services organization, offers animal nutrition and feeds; specialty protein production, processing, and marketing; on-farm protein production services; and grain, fertilizer, and ingredient procurement. The company recently expanded its footprint with the acquisitions of Leidy’s LLC, a premium pork processor that is headquartered in Souderton, Pa., and Esbenshade’s swine and feed mill operations.