Jeanne Carver
Shaniko Wool Company | Founder-President
About Speaker
Jeanne lives on her family’s Imperial Stock Ranch (est. 1871) in the western U.S., located in Oregon’s interior high desert. In 1999, in response to a collapsing U.S. wool market and diminished textile infrastructure, she led them out of commodity wool sales and in a new direction. Similar to the farm-to-fork “slow food” movement that reconnects us to food, Jeanne connected a fiber supply chain as close to home as possible and began making finished goods with their wool. Building on her ranch’s heritage and mindful stewardship of land and animals, she connected a growing customer base for textile products to their origin. Building a reputation in the craft, apparel and home markets, brands soon found her traceable wool supply, creating partnerships for a variety of products.
When the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) launched in 2016, her Imperial Stock Ranch was the first ranch in the world to be certified. With increasing interest in third-party certified wool, Jeanne launched Shaniko Wool Company in 2018 to scale the supply of RWS certified wool produced in the U.S. And with increasing concerns about the ecosystem and climate impacts of farming and grazing operations, in 2020, Jeanne launched the Shaniko Wool Carbon Initiative, a comprehensive third-party research and measurement project designed to determine the net environmental impact of the ranches in her Farm Group.
Jeanne serves on numerous boards related to agriculture and committees within the Textile Exchange community. She is an award-winning agricultural entrepreneur and author.