UOPX alumni spotlight: John Anderson

What inspires someone to go back to school after a 40-year career? John Anderson, a UOPX alumnus and director of field human resources business partners at Smithfield Foods, will tell you.

High standards are something Anderson (BSB/M, 2021; MBA, 2023) lives and breathes. It’s not enough just to set lofty expectations, he says — he must exceed them. While he demonstrated that in work and life, it wasn’t always true for education. 

After high school, Anderson entered the workforce, helping to open a big box store in his hometown. He worked alongside two high school friends and was promoted to become what he remembers as one of the youngest department managers at that time.

Maybe it was around then that he started to commit himself to the concept of excellence, because a few years later he started as an hourly employee in the food manufacturing industry. “I [was] promoted fairly quickly through several departments,” he says. He recalls working his way through production, operations and quality assurance in roles that ranged from technician to supervisor to manager.

David Flores, who has worked with Anderson for more than 15 years and is currently an HR generalist at Smithfield Foods, recognizes some key traits that drove Anderson’s success. They include a strong work ethic and reliability. 

Anderson got the chance to demonstrate this stay-calm-and-carry-on attitude when, after eight years of working in the beef and pork segment, his plant closed. Did Anderson panic? Nope. He went across the street, where another plant hired him as the operations manager. That facility would later be acquired by his current employer, Smithfield Foods.

When a need arose for a safety and human resources manager, Anderson moved into the HR side of the business. There, he built an independent department for safety and health services that’s still operational, he says. He’d found his lane, in other words, and he was swimming fast.

About the time that Anderson was moving into his HR role, he and his wife had a son. It was a pivotal event in more than one way.

“He was born with Down syndrome,” Anderson says. “[He’s] perfectly healthy, and he’s doing great. He’s 20 now. But as [he was growing up] … it became very apparent to me that he was not going to be able to attend traditional college and be able to get his degree. Something in my mind clicked. I am perfectly capable, so I wanted to get this done not just for myself, but for my son, for my wife, for my family.”

Another motivating factor was that Anderson’s career had started to plateau. He wondered if his lack of a degree was at least partly to blame.

“I’ve hired several individuals early in their careers,” he says, noting that some have gone on to become corporate executive managers and leaders at Smithfield. That, and the fact that his own mentors had nudged him toward earning his degree, inspired him to look into higher education.

“They expressed that [the degree] would be helpful for me,” he says of his mentors.

Anderson started at a community college and then transferred to University of Phoenix, where he could complete his bachelor’s degree in business and receive tuition reimbursement through his employer.

“The [tuition reimbursement] program is really what prompted me to go back and get this done,” says Anderson.

While some might assume that Anderson regrets the delay between high school graduation and earning his bachelor’s degree, that’s not quite the case. As Anderson explains, experiencing so much life between high school and college made his experience with University of Phoenix that much sweeter.

“I think waiting and getting back into completing my educational journey as I got older, it just meant a lot more,” he says. “So much that as soon as I graduated and obtained my bachelor’s degree, I reached out to somebody at University of Phoenix about the competency-based MBA program.”

Anderson was in the zone, seeing firsthand the symbiotic relationship between real-life experience and classroom knowledge. Nearly every class offered up moments where his real-world work experience related to what he was learning and vice versa, he says.

This was exciting and motivating, but the process was not without sacrifice. “There were a lot of nights where I would study and go to work when my son went to bed, get up early [and] put some more studying in,” Anderson recalls. “There was probably a two-to-three-year span where we didn’t take the vacations, [and] I chose not to sit and watch TV.”

Anderson pushed through, and UOPX’s structure kept him motivated. “University of Phoenix was able to offer programs where I could definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. We always knew where we were at, which made it well worth it,” he says.

Anderson’s only regret was not attending his bachelor’s degree graduation ceremony. So, when he completed his MBA two years later, he immediately registered for his master’s graduation ceremony in California.

“It was much larger than I anticipated,” Anderson says. “It was great. It was a very good experience [and it] made it all worthwhile.”

The other aspect that made his commencement worthwhile was familial: His wife came to California with him, and his son, who had inspired Anderson to start college, watched the event via video.

Today, Anderson’s eyes are set on the future. He was recently promoted to a director role in HR, which will have him traveling to visit plants on the East Coast. Anderson looks forward to his new responsibilities, anticipated travel and opportunity to work with different leadership styles between the facilities.

Flores has full faith in Anderson’s ability to conquer any challenges. “I have no doubt he’ll keep finding ways to strengthen his teams, spark positive change and lead with the same people-first approach that’s defined his career so far,” he says.

Anderson, in other words, and those around him are set to exceed expectations. 

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