The Edge March/April/May 2026

opportunities, we are investing in their management team, the people that we know are going to take the systems and the processes and the tools that we provide them and continue to grow and operate the business. Again, all of us are here to work ourselves out of a job. So, it’s all about investing in people. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS TRYING TO GROW A SUCCESS FUL BUSINESS? Get involved. Get engaged. Join peer groups. Go to your local association meetings, attend seminars, get online and do some continuing education courses. Go to go to all these events, and set a goal to find five people that you’ve seen around the industry or heard about. These people are so approachable and will sit down and tell you anything and everything that you want to know. We have all been there. We’ve all done that. Ask questions. Do not be afraid to sit down or pick up the phone and call somebody that you look up to. I would say one of the most satisfying things I did, especially with NALP, was that I was a trailblazer. When you’re mentoring and helping individuals grow their business, you are getting it in return 5x. There’s always something to learn. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER LANDSCAPE COMPANIES LOOKING TO GROW VIA M&A? Take your time and understand what that means for you and the organization and anybody else that you are looking to acquire. It’s not for everybody. I would say if you are a growth-minded individual and are really looking to dramatically grow your business, you believe in the business model that you built, and it’s scalable and it’s portable, you should do your homework and look into the private equity side of the business. The easy part of a transaction is the buying the business part. The hard part is integrating these businesses into your ecosystem. That is not just the tech stack or the alignment with the branch model. It’s the cultural aspect of these things. We are dealing with real people. This is a service business, a route-based business. It takes human capital to go out and execute this plan. So being able to go in there and thoughtfully talk to folks and get to know them and immerse yourself into their exist ing culture. It may look easy standing at the curb, but it is not for the faint hearted.

time, but really focus around surrounding the Cleveland market and taking as much market share as we could to expand it across northern Ohio, and then eventually down through Cincinnati. As I started doing that, we started look ing at some acquisition opportunities in different markets. Acquisitions are a great way to enter a new market because you’ve got people who live, work and play in those regions. They’ve got an established customer base. When we started thinking about doing acquisitions in some of these adjacent markets, it became apparent that acquisitions were extremely expensive, extremely complicated. When I began looking at closing a deal north of Columbus, we had some challenges with the bank. Although we were flush with cash at the time, the banks weren’t really all that excited about loaning us the money to go buy another landscap ing company that was 75-80 miles away. I took a step back, and I had joined the Vistage Group. It really was transformative throughout my career. In fact, I’m still a Vistage member, but they started giving me options and ideas on alternative ways to fund the acquisition. After a year and a half or so doing that, I decided to go out and begin looking for a partner who would provide the capital that was necessary to take the business concept that we had built and scale it, not just across Cleveland, but across, eventu ally, the Midwest. That’s what really got me bought into the private equity. I think there’s a huge misconception with private equity. All you need to do is go on social media to figure that out. But what I will tell you is I have had an amazing experience with our current partner, and it has been an amazing vehicle for us to raise the cap ital needed to go out and invest in other great organizations. I wouldn’t do anything different than what we’ve done here over the last five years. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TYPES OF LANDSCAPE BUSINESSES YOU WANT TO ACQUIRE? We are looking for quality companies that are largely focused on commercial maintenance. If we check the box on the mix of the business, the next steps in that process are people, people, and people. A lot of owners are looking for some sort of business continuity or succession plan. They typically seem to be at a point in their lives where, over the next year or two, they’re looking to step out and retire. So when we are looking at acquisition

line revenue and margins all the way down through the P&L are going to continue to improve because you’re able to focus on the things that you do best. When we talk about this concept of expense versus an investment, a lot of owner-operators who run great lifestyle businesses, and there’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever, every dollar or every penny that they spend is viewed as an expense or something that maybe comes out of their pocket versus a growth-mind ed business owner who wants to continue to grow the business and create greater opportunities for the organization and their customers and the communities they support. My mantra has always been ‘do good.’You make these investments into the business, primarily around talent, and the business will grow; it will take care of itself. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE? It depends who you ask. Some people may tell you I’m a micromanager. Some people may tell you that I’m a control freak, and I’m probably all of those things situationally. Some people may tell you I’m a seagull, where I kind of swoop in and then swoop back out. At the end of the day, I would say I’m a very open-minded leader. I do have expectations, and I do want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can for our employees, we are improving the customer experience and actively involved in creating a better community. I would say I lead with a lot of emotional fortitude. I have a lot of empathy, and I can see the shades of gray within the organization and the people that work here, but at the end of the day, I have the ability to make the tough decisions. Whether I like it or not, the organization depends on me to be able to do that, so we can continue to advance the organization. We’re 1,600 people today. It’s bigger than any one individual, including me. We all have a responsibility. I take that responsibility very seriously. We’re responsible for not just 1,600 team members, but also their families and their children. It’s thousands of people who are counting on us to make the best decisions possible. I would say it requires a lot of that emotional fortitude to do that. WHAT CAUSED YOU TO WANT TO GO THE PRIVATE EQUITY ROUTE? In 2012, we really set out to build this ‘business in a box.’It was how do we build a highly-scalable, highly-affordable business model that we could take, not just in the west side of Cleveland at the

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