A Humble Leader: How Paul Sundberg Moved the Needle in Swine Health
Former basketball coach John Wooden and swine health leader Paul Sundberg share at least one thing in common. They both define success by “never quite getting there.” Although many would argue both “got there” when it comes to achieving success in their chosen field, Sundberg says that’s what has made his career so fun over the years: always trying to "get there.”
“The ‘in’ box is never empty,” Sundberg laughs. “There is always more to do.”
On Dec. 31, Sundberg retired from his role as the executive director of the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) but is quick to point out that his to-do list for the U.S. swine industry isn’t complete yet. He is looking forward to continuing to be involved with the swine industry.
From the Milking Parlor to the Farrowing Barn
Growing up on a 160-acre dairy and grain farm in northeast Nebraska, Sundberg uncovered a passion for veterinary science. As one of five children, he knew there wasn’t a spot for everyone to come back to the farm. All of his siblings went on to be educators, and his younger brother farmed and taught like his father, who was also a high school principal.
Sundberg met his wife, Debbie, in high school. After considering going into marine biology or becoming a doctor, he settled on a career in animal health and started veterinary school in 1977. After completing his DVM at Iowa State University, he took a position in 1981 at Two Town Veterinary Clinics in Madison/Battle Creek, Neb. He worked in this mixed animal practice for nine years, gaining experience in a variety of species from guinea pigs to buffaloes. His primary focus was on dairy, beef and swine.
He found his way into the pork industry by chance after a call came through in 1994 with an offer to go work for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).
“Why the pork industry? That’s where the opening was,” Sundberg says. “I grew up on a dairy farm. I know dairy cows; I know what they’re thinking when I look them in the eye. It was hard to go into a different species, but I knew this was an opportunity I needed to take for my family.”
He learned early on that you don’t always get to plan the things that happen to you.
“You just go through doors as they open up,” Sundberg says.
And the doors continued to open for Sundberg, leading him to such roles as director of veterinary services and vice president of science and technology at the National Pork Board. Then, in 2013, the U.S. pork industry experienced a wake-up call that demanded a new way of doing things. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) struck the country, and devastating losses of pigs followed.
“My career with the National Pork Board was conservative,” Sundberg recalls. “Before you say anything or write anything, you better know it’s right. That means you need to wait until the research is published before you can talk about it.”
But when PEDv hit, that was no longer an option. Things had to be done differently immediately.
“I remember sitting at my kitchen table on a Saturday afternoon, calling researchers and telling them we need your help,” he says. “It wasn’t a call for proposals. It was a ‘we need help, and you’ve got to come help us now.’”
Finding solutions about how to stop this emerging disease as quickly as possible was the industry’s only hope, Sundberg says.
Business at the Speed of Trust
The board of directors at the National Pork Board knew it was time for some changes, Sundberg says. They wanted to figure out how the pork industry could do business differently. In December 2014, after a six-month review, the board gave the green light to start up the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) with Checkoff support. A search ensued and Sundberg was hired as executive director.
National Pork Board’s CEO at the time, Chris Hodges, always talked about doing business at the “speed of trust.” He told the staff to read a book about the speed of trust, Sundberg says. What it came down to was, “If you don’t have trust, you can’t do it with speed.”
A supportive National Pork Board’s board of directors helped guide others into thinking this was the direction the industry needed to go, Sundberg says. They put trust into doing things in a different way – at the speed of business that the trust would support.
“We had porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) in the 1980s, porcine circovirus (PCV) in the 1990s, H1N1 influenza in late 2000s, and then we got PEDv in 2013. We were always behind the curve in taking care of things,” he adds. “The board recognized as an industry we were always trying to react, and we weren’t reacting fast enough to be able to affect what was happening.”
Putting their trust in SHIC, the board decided to focus on preparation instead of reaction and gave SHIC $15 million over a five-year period.
“I had the opportunity to talk with a group of producers at a meeting when we were getting started,” Sundberg recalls. “I said, ‘We’re not going to be surprised by the next PEDv anymore. We’re going to have good diagnostics so we can find things as quickly as they come.’ And Jim Pillen pursed his lips a bit and raised his hand and simply asked pointedly, ‘You’re going to spend $15 million dollars on diagnostics?’ That was a wake-up call about the need for a program with breadth.”
And that was the start of Sundberg’s eight-year drive to make sure SHIC’s mission to protect and enhance U.S. swine herd health by minimizing the impact of emerging disease threats through preparedness, coordinated communications, global disease monitoring, analysis of swine health data and targeted research investments was achieved.
When Sundberg looks back, he admits he wished he’d had the vision when he worked for the National Pork Board to predict PEDv would be hitting the pork industry. But, things always happen for a reason.
“That’s why SHIC was formed — ultimately because I didn’t have the vision to predict it needed to happen before it happened. Our team was so focused on academic science and PRRS. I didn’t have the vision to say we need to look better at what’s going on elsewhere and predict so we could prepare to prevent or respond and recover, rather than just focusing on what’s happened here,” Sundberg says. “We had to have PEDv to get people to push and say, ‘Let’s do something different.’”
In 2004, Sundberg received the Howard Dunne Memorial Award, one of the American Association of Swine Veterinarian’s highest honors in recognition of his outstanding service to the swine industry.
Circle the Wagons
A positive perception of SHIC and what it’s done for and capable of doing for the industry is the most important thing Sundberg has tried to accomplish, he says. That meant supporting producers first and foremost.
The early days of SHIC were an especially challenging time to accomplish this. It was a time when everyone was doing their own thing, explains Mark Greenwood, former chief diversified markets officer at Compeer Financial and former SHIC board member.
“We had PEDv and pretty significant death loss in the swine industry at that time. We had all these wildfires, but nobody was trying to collaborate. I would describe Paul’s leadership style as circling the wagons and saying, ‘Listen, we’ve all got to work together and communicate instead of everyone doing their own thing.’ Paul’s leadership and collaboration skills and being able to work across the industry gave SHIC more credibility.”
That’s when SHIC really started evolving, Greenwood adds. After PEDv was under control, SHIC started looking at what other diseases were on the horizon.
“I was always urging people, ‘Don’t tell me about what research needs to be done. Tell me about ideas. What big ideas need to happen — no matter how hard they are, no matter how crazy they are?’” Sundberg says.
For example, Rodger Main, DVM, had an idea to put diagnostic labs together to build a system that would help the pork industry look at the body of diagnostics, rather than one case at a time, Sundberg explains. That was the idea that became SHIC’s Domestic Disease Monitoring Reports.
“Jumping right on to that was the international disease reporting and international disease monitoring,” Sundberg says. “How can we do a similar thing internationally, even though it’s not going to be through diagnostic labs? How can we look beyond the U.S. because one of the biggest efforts for SHIC is to monitor and predict what’s going to happen instead of react to it.”
The Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project was another huge step forward for SHIC, too, facilitating greater producer-to-producer communication and sharing information.
“One of the other accomplishments has been helping create a more collaborative effort among universities and researchers,” Sundberg says. He’s also seen support for the development of national rapid response teams to be able to give producers a quick analysis of biosecurity lapses that have led to a disease outbreak and providing the funding needed for more diagnostics in difficult cases so an emerging disease doesn’t slip through the cracks unnoticed.
Former NPPC chief veterinarian Liz Wagstrom says there’s no question Sundberg’s persistence paid off.
“He’s like that dog with a bone; he will come at a question multiple ways and won’t stop when he hears the first no, he’ll keep coming back and saying how can we get over this objection? I think that persistence is unique,” Wagstrom says. “A lot of people will hear ‘no’ once or twice and give up. He does not.”
For example, without Sundberg, she says the U.S. might still have pseudorabies in the swine herd.
“He really drove that during his time at the National Pork Board,” Wagstrom points out. “Paul has been a source of not only historical knowledge, but he’s really been a strategist on what we can do and where we can go. And with that strategy, he always keeps what is good for the industry and what is good for the producer top of mind. What can we do to make the industry stronger?”
Standing Up for Pork Producers
Humble. Quiet. Unassuming. Servant leader. Persistent. Driven. Trying to wrap up Sundberg’s unique leadership style in one word isn’t easy.
“He’s able to get folks to follow him, and he does it in a way that you don’t even realize you are following him until you are,” explains Dave Pyburn, managing technical services veterinarian with Zoetis. “It may have been about some things you weren’t completely bought in on. Maybe you even thought about it in a different direction than Paul. But somehow, quietly, he got you to come around and follow his lead. I envy that of him.”
Pyburn worked for Sundberg at the National Pork Board and continued to work with him when Sundberg started SHIC and Pyburn became chief veterinarian for the National Pork Board. They worked especially close when African swine fever (ASF) struck China in 2018 and the U.S. began ramping up prevention and preparedness efforts.
Pyburn says Sundberg is not an excitable leader, except for that one time when he met up with a marching band during an important meeting.
“We were in Dallas for the annual meeting where our National Pork Board committees came together to fund research. One year, a corporation next door was celebrating their accomplishments,” Pyburn recalls. “They brought in a marching band, and it was so loud, we couldn’t hear each other, yet alone think. Paul’s face turned beet red, and he went flying out of there and told them how it was and we went on with our meeting.”
While Pyburn admits you don’t see Sundberg get excitable often, he was never afraid to stand up and speak for the industry, and he did it well.
“In the old NPPC days, non-Checkoff funds could outright advocate for the industry to USDA,” he says. “But when the National Pork Board was separated, that line between advocacy and research, education and promotion, was very boldly drawn. It was amazing to watch Paul walk right up to that line and essentially advocate for the industry, but he did it so it looked like promotion, education and research. I don’t think industry folks understand all that he has done and is doing for the pork industry.”
Part of this is because of his humble and down-to-earth nature.
“He is a servant leader: very genuine, always trying to do what is best for others and not himself,” Greenwood says. “He had a unique ability to work across the entire industry, producers and veterinarians, for the benefit of all. That’s a pretty good legacy. And by the way, I don’t know who else could have pulled it off but Paul.”
Mark Schwartz, director of innovation and production optimization at Schwartz Farms in Sleepy Eye, Minn., never worked with Sundberg when he was a practitioner, but he never questioned his knowledge as a veterinarian and Ph.D. Schwartz has served on the SHIC board of directors since its inception and will wrap up his years of service in the summer of 2024.
“There’s no question Paul’s highly educated, but he’s always had this ability to communicate with producers and practitioners to help them understand the importance of preparedness and response to disease threats,” Schwartz says. “He’s a non-assuming person who has this wealth of knowledge behind him but is able to convey it in a manner that’s so helpful for the producer wherever they’re at.”
Wagstrom agrees Sundberg is smart and strategic, but she says even more importantly, he has a high level of integrity — and his wife Debbie agrees.
“He’s very value-based; everything is about ethics and morals and values,” Debbie says. “He wants to do everything the right way. I’ve always admired the integrity he has for getting down to the science. He wants so badly for everyone to see that if there is any doubt about it, get down to the science of it.”
Debbie and Paul Sundberg have tirelessly supported U.S. pork producers for many years.
It’s Always About People
Despite all the challenges and crises he’s handled over the years, Sundberg never lost his focus on producers and the people he works with in the pork industry.
“He’s surrounded himself with good people and talented people and gave them the opportunity to grow in their jobs and take leadership positions within the industry,” Wagstrom says.
Debbie says he could always see people’s talents. The father of four daughters, Sundberg has always found a way to make time for his family even when his travel schedule was busy.
“He couldn’t be there for every activity, but he tried his darnedest,” she says. “He has a very soft side to him that I’m not sure people see; he loves animals, and he loves people. That has made him successful in his career.”
One of Sundberg’s daughters told him that she thinks the thing he will miss most in retirement is not having people call him up like they used to.
“He was always happy to answer calls and talk to people,” Debbie says. “He’s a teacher at heart and loves explaining things to people when they have questions.”
Interestingly, communication is the one big lesson Sundberg says he learned throughout his career.
“I wasn’t a very good communicator at Pork Board. I learned why we do things, but not how to do them best,” he says. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned at SHIC is you don’t have to be perfect 100% of the time, but you do have to be responsive and listen. There is value in listening, and you can return that value if you really listen to what people are saying.”
He’s confident his successor Megan Niederwerder, DVM, will be a leader who listens. After all, he’s the first to remind people SHIC is not about him, and it never was.
“I hope SHIC has brought value to the pork industry,” Sundberg says. “I hope we made a difference because we helped producers. When we talk about $50-billion loss if we get African swine fever, $50 billion is hard to translate. Producers want to know what it means on the farm, and most importantly what is going to be done to prevent it. I hope we’ve been able to bring that value to producers, about ASF or any other emerging disease threat.”
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