COFOUNDER Steve Maxwell

A native Floridian, Steve Maxwell was born and raised in the Tampa Bay-area town of Lithia, Florida. Heeding the call to serve his beloved country, he left home in 1982 to serve in the United States Navy as an Air Traffic Controller at Chase Field Naval Air Station in Beeville, Texas from 1982-1987. While stationed there, Steve and his wife Beverly began attending church with their neighbors John and Nancy Durham. The couples soon became friends and often shared their ideas and goals with each other as their opportunities arose and their respective families began to grow. The dream of being entrepreneurs who reach financial independence was one shared by the couples and it grew into the ultimate goal of helping others reach financial independence as well.

In 1990 Steve and his family moved back to Florida where Steve started a career in the produce industry. It was there that he learned the three segments of the produce business: farming, packing, and the marketing of crops. As a result, Steve has served in the potato, tomato, and citrus industries for over 31 years.

In 2003 Steve left the produce industry to begin the process of purchasing his first company, Highland Distribution Services.

In 2005 he and his now business partner John Durham acquired Highland and immediately began major capital investments to begin manufacturing the products that Highland had previously only been a distributor of. By 2018, the name had changed to Highland Packaging Solutions, Inc. and had become one of the largest agricultural packaging companies in the western hemisphere and had spun off multiple companies including software, food safety, post-harvesting washdown systems, as well as crop nutrition and protection.

Today, Steve’s focus is on organizing our nation county-by-county setting up systems that will engage and defend our citizens by reminding us that the answers to our issues have already been determined by our founding principles found in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Federalist Papers. Citizens Defending Freedom is established to shine light on our local institutions, measure local government action based on our God-given rights (from our Creator), and when breached, helping our citizens engage in liberty.

Steve and Beverly Maxwell, high school sweethearts, have been married for 39 years and have 3 children and 5 grandchildren. They reside in Polk County, Florida.