The Edge January/February 2026

TALKING WITH TITANS Talking with Titans: Chris Senske

WHAT WAS A MAJOR LESSON YOU LEARNED WHILE LEADING THE COMPANY? There are so many lessons learned over a 52-year career, it’s hard to nail down specific ones. I think the most important lesson that was actually the hardest to learn was to focus on our great competency. It was so easy to be distracted by chasing dollars, doing something that we had no expertise in. In the 70s, during the energy crisis, there were significant subsidies and a drive to upgrade insulation in homes. It looked like pretty easy money! Then next up, we were distracted with landscape maintenance, and that spawned design and bid build landscaping. All those $100,000 to $300,000 build contracts we were missing out on were going to make us a fortune. Not so much on any of these projects. I left those businesses be hind and went back to focusing on lawn care. When we did, we were profitable and growing year after year. The lesson: focus on your core competencies. I think my style is to gain consensus, make a decision and delegate the execution of the project. I’ve always found it easy to delegate. I am more of the creative idea generator, the starter but not the closer that follows through to the end. I would like to find a champion who will build on the idea and execute a successful completion of a project with consultation along the way. The common theme at Senske was you will get enough rope, but you will need to ask questions along the way, so you don’t hang yourself. The creative part is probably why I took on marketing as my responsibility. Again, coming up with the outline of a plan, a creative idea, then passing it off to an expert who could execute it to a successful conclusion, really defines my style. I would not say I was a good strategic planner, but allowing others to take the HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE?

By Jill Odom

CHRIS SENSKE IS THE ACQUISITION AMBASSADOR FOR THE SENSKE Family of Companies. He started out in the industry at a young age, working for his father, Bill. After his father had built up Senske Services’ reputation, he passed the reins to Chris in the 1980s. Over the years, Senske grew the Kennewick, Washington based business to include branches all the way to Provo, Utah, and Denver, Colorado. In 2022, he finalized a deal with private equity firm GTCR. Now known as Senske Family of Companies, their portfolio includes 10 additional brands and serves customers in 16 states and Canada.

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE WHEN YOU TOOK OVER THE BUSINESS FROM YOUR FATHER IN THE 80S? Even though I had grown up in the business, I was challenged immediately with what I should be doing as a leader. My father needed to have major surgery just as I graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in chemistry with an emphasis on math and biochemistry, when he asked me to come fill in for him. I thought I was going to graduate school, but I accepted the offer to help out because I needed money and I wanted to get married. The five-dollar-per-hour pay rate seemed like a huge increase over

the $1.80 I was earning washing test tubes in the OBGYN lab at University Hospital. I had no clue what I should be doing as a leader of four or five employees and running a business. I was tasked with making sure all the work got done, bills paid, receivables collected, and then making a strategic plan for the next several years. My biggest challenge was trying to learn how to manage. I studied all the industry journals to learn what others were doing. Weeds, Trees & Turf (now Landscape Management), Lawn Care Industry magazine (now Lawn & Landscape), as well as other rags, be came my bible to learn from.

30 The Edge // January/February 2026