About Us

Our Team

Allen Dunlavy, President /CEO

  • Allen has a lifetime of experience in the Meat and Food industry from both the Senior Management in Operations, Food Safety and Maintenance
  • Allen Dunlavy has been in all aspects of meat plant management for 20+ years at Federal Beef in South Dakota and North Dakota, Shapiro Packing Company in Georgia, Jack Link’s Snacks and Abbeyland Foods both of Wisconsin before beginning his consulting firm. Allen has done projects in plants across the USA and on 2 continents and 5 different countries.
  • Mr. Dunlavy combines his business background with his familiarity in plant operations and food safety to develop projects of any size and find the opportunity to be successful in both slaughter plants and further processing. He firmly believes in surrounding himself with the best people and has built a team to handle every detail of the project from start to finish with the same high standards

Cesar de Oliveira

  • Cesar has been working as a project engineer / manager at one of our large projects in Texas.
  • Born and raised in Brazil. Moved to the US in 2016 to attend UTA to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer.
  • Cesar’s experience comes from plant engineering in the rendering industry.
  • He is always ready to learn everything about the meat industry – from design to food safety.

Rhonda Wulf

Rhonda Wulf has experience in the full scope of the beef industry from genetics and cattle feeding to the packing plants. Early in her career Wulf worked on her family’s genetics and cattle feeding company. Wulf attended and graduated from the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management with a Master of Science in Ranch Management where her capstone projects pulled together her experience with her desire to learn more about vertically integrated systems with projects. Wulf joined the team starting DemKota Ranch Beef in Aberdeen South Dakota, a 1500 head per day capacity plant that had been shuttered for 2 years. Starting out in Procurement when she worked with Finance and IT to develop a system of moving data through the plant and working with initial financial models. Learning the whole system of the plant, Wulf was promoted to Branded Programs Manager and Director of Food Safety and Quality. After 4 years there, Wulf took her passion for building systems to other plants in start-up, growth or turnaround situations.

David Dixon

  • David Dixon comes to Dunlavy Contracting with 27+ years of experience in both Engineering and Management roles, with much of his work focusing in the Animal Protein industries, and specifically in rendering and other processing.
  • Dave holds degrees in Civil and Structural Engineering with a minor in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Missouri.
  • Texpac/Environotein, Ft Worth, TX VP (2015-2020) of Engineering & Rendering where he was responsible for engineering, project management and construction of five rendering and protein conversion facilities. He also worked as the liaison between ownership and operations at each location.
  • IHI Lamoni, IA, Consulting/Project Engineer (2009-2015) He performed selection and validation of equipment, automation systems, and processes for manufacturing operations. Customers included API, Cargill Meat Solutions, Tyson Foods Inc, National Beef, Swift Pork Company, Omega Protein, Seaboard Farms, Smithfield/Farmland Meats, Darling International, and Central By-Products.
  • Great Plains Protein (IA) & South Texas Protein (TX) (2008-2009) General Manager
  • Pet Solutions, Arkansas, (2006-2008) Corporate Engineer and Plant Engineer · Missouri (1996-2006)  various engineering roles 

Andre Neves Russo 

  •  Andre was born and raised in Brazil, coming to the United States on a tennis scholarship to pursue his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Mathematics.
  • He brings experience in project engineering and management, with a background in coordinating cross-functional teams, managing production schedules, and overseeing manufacturing processes from planning through execution.
  • Andre has worked on cost-reduction initiatives, time studies, and workflow improvements, keeping projects on track and within quality standards.
  • He is proficient in SOLIDWORKS, CATIA, AutoCAD, and ANSYS, with hands-on experience in GD&T, CAE systems, and machine shop operations.
  • Andre holds a Master of Science in Data Science, adding an analytical background to his engineering and project management experience.