One-on-One with Imperial Sugar CEO

The CEO of Imperial Sugar for only nine days and inside the sugar refinery the night of the explosion, John Sheptor has had a rough few weeks, to say the least.

But despite the tragedy, Sheptor has held it all together something he says he had to do.

News Three's Alice Massimi had the chance to sit down one-on-one with Sheptor today.

John Sheptor says he made the decision the moment he heard the first explosion, as leader of this organization he would need to be present and available for his employees.

A decision that's probably been difficult to live up to, but one Mr. Sheptor says has been guided by his faith.

John Sheptor had only been on the job for 9 days, when he made the trip from Imperial Sugar's headquarters in Texas to Port Wentworth to meet his employees.

“One of the early priorities that I had was to meet with as many employees of the company as possible to talk about my vision for the company, but more importantly listen to them with regard to their ideas,” explains Sheptor.

He was getting ready to take a tour of the facility, walk around and meet some of the employees.

It was around seven o’clock on Thursday night. Mr. Sheptor had no idea how drastically his life was about to change.

“The gravity you can't help at that moment feel the weight of the injuries that we saw and the perspective that we may have suffering people in the building in the middle of the fire,” recalls Sheptor. 

Since that night Sheptor has taken the lead, visiting burn patients in Augusta, spending time with the families of those lost, and making sure his employees know he's there for them.

“I think that as the leader of this organization I need to be present and available,” he explains. Not an easy task.

“I have lived this experience with every family I have lived the experience at the hospitals when the doctors have made the questions to the family do we stop life support or not.”

A difficult role for anyone, but one he says he's found the strength to perform because of one thing -- his faith.

“I have as much as I possibly can, been a member of this community during this time and done my best to bring a sense of hope and optimism for all that have these needs.”

Another thing to keep in is mind is that through all this, Mr. Sheptor has not had his family here to lean on. But he says he's been welcomed here with open arms, invited to more dinners then he’ll ever be able to go to, and officially made part of the family when he was given a Dixie Crystal jacket by an employee.

Sheptor says he just hopes he's been able to help this family through such a tragedy.