Lee Leachman is the CEO of Leachman Cattle and the VP of Beef Genetics at URUS. Leachman Cattle is a leading beef seedstock operation that markets over 2,500 bulls to ranchers in over 43 states. Leachman Cattle annually and ranks among the largest seedstock breeder in the United States. URUS markets over 14M units of beef semen per year through GENEX and Alta to ranchers and dairymen in eighty countries. Lee has built his career on a rare ability to combine sharp economic insights with deep genetic expertise. His vision is driving meaningful innovation across the beef industry and is improving producer profitability, while building better cows.

A third-generation cattleman, Lee grew up on the family ranch in Billings, Montana, where he began helping with operations like heat detection at age seven. He earned an Honors BA in Economics from Harvard University in 1988 and later pursued graduate-level studies in animal breeding at Colorado State University.

After college, Lee joined his father Jim and brother Seth at Leachman Cattle Company, helping expand it into one of North America’s largest beef seedstock enterprises. In 2003, he moved to Colorado and co-founded Leachman Cattle of Colorado with Dallas Horton. There, the company pioneered large-scale feed intake and conversion testing starting in 2004. A key question from Horton about which bulls would maximize commercial profitability sparked the development of groundbreaking economic indexes: $RANCH® (for daughter profitability at weaning), $FEEDER® (for feedlot and rail performance), and $PROFIT® (for overall profitability from conception to harvest).

Under Lee’s leadership, Leachman Cattle runs a vast network of over thirty cooperator herds with more than 12,000 breeding females, producing Angus, Red Angus, Stabilizer® composites, and Charolais genetics. The company maintains a database exceeding 1.9 million animals and partners with Zoetis for genomically enhanced genetic evaluations. Beyond seedstock, Leachman Cattle offers semen, custom collection services, and data tools like $PROFIT Share to support other producers.

Lee has served as President of the Beef Improvement Federation and of the Red Angus Association of America. He is still active in industry organizations and frequently speaks on genetics, profitability, and data-driven breeding both domestically and internationally. Lee and his wife Lisa live in Cheyenne, Wyoming. They enjoy time with their son Graham and his wife Jenn, and their two granddaughters. Lee & Lisa enjoy traveling and serve their church community through small groups and marriage ministry.