KC Capers
Since October 2023, KC has served as Riceland Foods’ Director of Training and Culture, bringing a people-centered approach to leadership development and organizational growth.
Real Talk: Leadership isn’t taught in comfort zones. It’s forged in adversity, refined through service, and proven through transformation.
At nine months old, KC Capers was abandoned in a small South Carolina town. His 91- year-old great-great-grandmother, Ella Taylor Williams, decided that wouldn’t be his ending. It would be his beginning. She lived to 107, and for 16 years she taught him that perseverance isn’t a personality trait; it’s a daily decision. That lesson became the foundation of every leader he has developed, starting with himself.
With over 32 years of leadership experience spanning military, law enforcement, and corporate sectors, KC has led at every level. Two combat tours in Iraq as a Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant taught him what textbooks never could. Leadership isn’t about rank. It’s about running toward danger while others run away. As a senior noncommissioned officer, he was responsible for training, discipline, and mission readiness of the Marines under his command. That experience forged a leadership philosophy built on service, accountability, and decisive action under pressure.
KC carried that philosophy into a law enforcement career where he rose to command staff levels, serving as Police Chief and as Captain and Operations Commander for a Sheriff’s Office. At the executive level, he didn’t just enforce policy; he shaped it. He developed officers and departments on one principle: serve your community by first serving your people. When he invested in his officers, morale increased, community trust improved, and crime rates decreased. The lesson was clear: invest in people, and results will follow.
KC has earned six degrees, including four master’s, and is currently a PhD Candidate in Organizational Leadership. He pursues education not for credentials but for capability. His commitment is to building transformational frameworks that work. Theory without application is intellectual decoration. His research and methodologies demonstrate that rigorous scholarship combined with real-world experience creates measurable, lasting change.
As Senior Manager of Training and Culture at Riceland Foods, KC applies his Mind-Set, Skill-Set, Tool-Set framework to fundamentally change how leaders develop other leaders. As a leadership consultant, he also partners with organizations seeking transformational culture change and leadership development. His mission isn’t to create followers. It’s cultivating leaders who develop more leaders, generating waves of transformation that extend far beyond any training room.
A certified John Maxwell Team Speaker, Trainer, and Coach, a PROSCI Certified Change Management Practitioner, and a DiSC Consultant, KC’s work has been recognized with over 25 community and leadership awards since 2010. He operates from three battletested truths:
- You cannot lead others until you learn to lead yourself.
- Your past doesn't define your potential; your purpose does.
- Real leadership is measured in lives transformed, not titles collected.
Real Talk: KC doesn’t believe in impossible. He believes in the improbable made inevitable through intentional action.
His great-great-grandmother didn’t save him, so he could play it safe. She saved him so he could serve others. From combat zones to corporate boardrooms, from patrol cars to executive suites, KC carries one mission: to help people Discover, Develop, and Deploy the best version of themselves!
The question isn’t whether transformation is possible.
The question is: Are you willing to do what it takes?