ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
National Beef has a storied multi-decade history, and former Liberal citizen William Madden is a part of that.
As Madden tells it, his interest in the field was sparked by his family’s history.
“My family has some history in the agriculture field, so it was something I was always around and something I was interested in along with manufacturing and stuff like that. That's what always interested me when I was growing up and ultimately, I decided that was going to be my career,” Madden said. I was born and raised in Liberal, and then I moved to the Kansas City area around my junior year of high school, and then graduated from Blue Valley West High School in 2003. I got my associate's degree in Kansas City and moved back to Liberal in 2005 and began working at National Beef, and I've been at National Beef since then.”
While he currently resides in Kansas City, Madden said he has very fond memories of growing up in Liberal.
“I definitely have a lot of great memories from time spent with our family's church community in Liberal. Growing up, we attended Bibleway Church of God in Christ, and I have a lot of great memories from spending time there for services and youth group activities and all of that,” Madden said. “I remember it was around 1996 when the church leadership decided to build a new building, which happened, and that ended up being a great project. I've also got a big family there in Liberal, I've had relatives there since the 1950s, so I've also got a lot of great memories of get-togethers and spending time with everyone. It's an honor being able to come back to Liberal, especially for something as special as the Black History Month Scholarship Banquet. Having grown up in Liberal, that gives me a great sense of pride in the community and having really good role models throughout the community.”
Madden then shared some of his history working with National Beef, where he currently serves as the director of regulatory affairs.
“In my time at National Beef, I've worked in the technical services and food safety quality assurance, and that's where I've been my whole career – I started out as an hourly technician and moved around in multiple different roles,” Madden said. “In 2007, I took a position at National Beef's Kansas City offices and worked there for a few years in some different roles and then in 2009, I took a position in Liberal and moved back there, and from 2009 to 2013, I was the food safety coordinator, and then from 2013 to 2016, I was quality assurance manager before moving back to Kansas City for a corporate office position. When I came back to Kansas City in 2016, I was the corporate product manager and spent a lot of time writing specifications for the products and everything we make in our plants for our customers. In 2017, I took the role of director of food safety and quality assurance for the Kansas City operations – Kansas City has a processing plant and distribution center, so I was in charge of all of those responsibilities. Then, just this past year, I moved into my current position as director of regulatory affairs, which is involved in designing and developing and maintaining and directing our plant teams as it relates to food safety and regulatory compliance. National Beef operates seven plants across the U.S., and I have responsibilities at each of those plants.”
Madded added his path to working with the more regulatory side of the operations was rather interesting.
“When you talk about food safety, you also have to talk about human safety because those go hand in hand. Those automatically come with processes and programs to help manage and maintain standards,” Madden said. “And it's the same with quality, they're all related because they all have processes and programs in place to produce high quality products that are good and safe for customers. And it's the same with regulatory compliance. Any meat processing plant or other food processing plant is federally regulated, and National Beef plants are regulated by the USDA, and there are many safety regulations we have to be sure and comply with on a daily basis. In order to do that, there are programs and processes in place, so all of those things really go hand in hand. And I would say, especially today, our food supply chain is much more demanding than it's ever been, so there are many more factors to keep in mind. There are so many different ways our products get used – we might sell products directly to the customers or to retailers, so the more complicated our supply chain becomes, the more robust our processes and procedures have to become in order to make sure everything is safe and healthy.”
During his time with the company, Madden added, there has been a lot of innovation.
“National Beef is a leader when it comes to food safety, so the innovations we have put into our plants are absolutely world class,” Madden said. “In fact, with the Liberal plant, we're just starting up a world-class fabrication processing area there, and the whole design behind that is to help further the work we've done as a company throughout the years in terms of being a leader in innovation in food safety. In Liberal, that's going to be a world-class facility and probably one of the premier facilities in the U.S., which is amazing.”
However, Madden said, that innovation began long before his tenure with the company.
“Liberal has a really rich history, and it's really beneficial to know it. The national Black History Month theme for 2025 is 'African-Americans in Labor,' and that is so fitting for the African-American community in Liberal. My family moved to Liberal in the 1950s from Arkansas along with a few other families during what would be known as The Great Migration,” Madden said. “During that time, African-American families had a desire for more, and they wanted a better life and opportunities than what was available to them. Liberal provided those opportunities, so there's a rich history in terms of workforce there in Liberal, so it's important for people to reflect on that and acknowledge that foundation. National Beef played a significant role in the African-American community in terms of labor. When National Beef opened in 1969, African-Americans were able to obtain employment there that provided fair wages and fair treatment, which was what many African-Americans who moved to Liberal from the southern states desired. The opportunities National Beef provided them advanced our position in the workforce in terms of labor and fair treatment. This continues today at National Beef because not only do we strive to be world-class in worker safety, food safety and product quality, National Beef strives to make a positive impact in every community we operate in.”
While Liberal’s Black History Month activities have concluded Madden said it is a great time of reflection for everyone.
“This is a great time to reflect on the effort and work that's happened in terms of people contributing to the community there,” Madden said. “There are several core families there in Liberal who helped pave the way for everyone else, because they had a vision for what they wanted in life – they wanted more in life, more for their families, and more for their communities. To be able to carry on that tradition and reflect on it with the rest of the community will be great, and I'm really looking forward to all of that.”
