The company and culture of John Deere has held strong through nine subsequent leaders over 180+ years. From the early succession of the Deere family to the modern-day groundbreakers, the person leading John Deere has always been determined to uphold the core values of integrity, quality, humanity, commitment, and innovation.
Founder and President from 1837–1886
John Deere was a blacksmith who developed the first commercially successful, self-scouring steel plow in 1837 and founded the company that still bears his name.
Deere was born in 1804 in Rutland, Vermont. After his father was lost at sea when he was four years old, Deere was raised solely by his mother. As a young man, he won acclaim for his workmanship and ingenuity as a blacksmith. When the New England economy collapsed in 1836, he followed other Vermonters to Illinois, where he established a blacksmith shop in Grand Detour.
These descendants of the man himself carried on not only his lineage, but the same dedication to the core values of our company.
In opening up the position to visionaries outside of the Deere family itself, we as a company have been able to grow and expand our reach and our perspective of the world we serve.
Great leaders make great companies, and our CEO John May shares the strong guiding forces of his predecessors: our shared values of integrity, quality, commitment, and innovation.
