BYRON RUSSELL

CHAIRMAN & CEO, CHENEY BROS., WEST PALM BEACH

Cheney Bros. may be a century-old family-owned food distributor, but before he was elevated to CEO in 1981 at the age of 28, Russell started working as a teenager in a company warehouse, sweeping floors and loading trucks. He remembers it as a “small, hot, narrow building.” In 1925, Russell’s maternal grandfather, Joe Cheney, started a West Palm Beach-based business delivering eggs and butter from local farmers. Today it has nearly 3 million square feet of space in 10 warehouses throughout the Southeast, distributing more than 64,000 food items with 1,800 trucks and more than 3,200 employees. Annual sales surpass $3 billion. Russell and his wife are supporters of the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, the state’s largest private funding source for youth-focused outdoor education.