The founder of Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms Ltd, Cambridge, Ontario, Dr. Donald McQueen Shaver is a distinguished Canadian, a self-made businessman, and an outstanding leader in agricultural development and production, both in Canada and around the world.

Following military service from 1940 to 1945, Dr. Shaver re-established his poultry breeding operation in 1949. Ten years later, the first exports of poultry breeding stock were made. Today, these stocks, originating in Cambridge, are licensed and distributed in more than 90 countries, with a world-wide market share in excess of 15 per cent. Since that time, beef cattle breeding has also become a part of the Shaver operations.

Dr. Shaver’s insistence on the necessity for the eradication of certain poultry diseases has contributed to the world-wide success of his company. He has the best white egg layers in the world, winning 12 of the last 14 USDA random sample tests.

Dr. Shaver has long been a leader with respect to the need for increased food production in less developed countries. He pioneered the sale of Canadian agricultural products to China, and has been instrumental in the development of modern poultry industries in India, Pakistan, Ghana, Burma and Bangladesh.

Dr. Shaver is past president of several agricultural organizations. He is an Honourary Life Member of the World’s Poultry Science Association, and the Ontario Institute of Agrologists. He was awarded the Centennial Medal by the Ontario Agricultural College. Dr. Donald McQueen Shaver was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 1978, and awarded the Degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa by McGill University in 1983. His most recent honour was to serve as the first Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Guelph, 1985-1987, providing Dr. Shaver with an opportunity to counsel young people as entrepreneurs.