Bob Grover, founder and chairman of Pacific Landscape Management, based in Hillsboro, Oregon, has been raising the professionalism of the industry for the past 50 years.
For his selfless support of the industry and his commitment to lifting individuals within his organization, Grover has been named the 2026 Lifetime Leader of the Year.
“Receiving this award from NALP and the industry I love and have dedicated my life to is humbling,” Grover says. “I don’t necessarily seek praise, but I sure accept it. And I hope that my story inspires others to work hard within their businesses, the industry, and the local communities.”
Grover started in the industry working at a retail nursery, Drake’s 7 Dees, during his sophomore year of high school. Owner and nursery manager Jerry Gross was a graduate of Oregon State University and influenced Grover’s decision to earn a degree in ornamental horticulture from OSU.
“After spending 2 1/2 years working in the retail nursery, I developed a true love of plants and thought that I might enjoy a career in horticulture,” Grover says.
After spending his college summers landscaping, he got a job with Northwest Landscape Industries after graduating, where he worked his way up the company from crew leader to regional manager, overseeing eight branch locations.
“Rich (Ackerman) and his partner Jim Wathey were national industry leaders, teaching me a lot and encouraging me to get involved with NALP (ALCA) at the time,” Grover says.
Grover first became involved in NALP in 1987 and since then has served on several committees, including the education committee and conference planning committee, the H-2B workforce coalition and chaired the sustainability council. He has also served on the board of directors and was NALP president in 2021-2022.
“I’m highly motivated to help push the industry forward, thus my volunteerism,” Grover says. “But the rewards of seeing the work that NALP has done and the relationship that I’ve developed through involvement on committees and the board are incredible. I am so proud to be a landscaper and surrounded by many close friends who are landscapers as well.”
When NLI sold to TruGreen in 1998, Grover eventually left and started Pacific Landscape Management with his business partner, Elias Godinez, in 2001. Over the years, the company has become one of the largest landscape management companies in the Pacific Northwest. Grover says the most significant key to their growth has been investing in and developing their team.
“We have worked tremendously hard to create an organization that attracts and develops great people and we have worked very hard to find ways to push compensation to support them,” Grover says. “The best people deserve the best wages and benefits. But it goes beyond money. We’ve worked to create an environment that provides opportunities for growth and teamwork.”
Grover says he and his business partner live by the philosophy of ‘We may take care of plants, but our business is all about people.’
“Yes, I’m a capitalist, and yes, I believe in the profit motive, but profit is the result of our business, not the primary goal,” Grover says. “We’ve worked very hard to create a culture where everybody wins. Our customers receive a valuable, appreciated service and our team works in an environment where they enjoy each other and have opportunity to continually develop and expand their responsibility and compensation. I’m prouder of the development of our team than I am of our financial success.”
Grover says one of the greatest challenges he’s faced over the years has been when competitors, large and small, try to buy work with low prices.
“We have worked incredibly hard to create value above the lowest price offered to win and keep great customers,” Grover says. “We’ve done this very successfully, and it has helped Pacific develop a reputation within the industry that is worthy of paying extra above the lowest cost option and develop many very long-standing relationships with great customers with phenomenal properties.”
One lesson Grover strives to pass on to new owners is the value of being financially conservative and to consider the potential positive and negative outcomes going on in the industry and the world.
“I’m always looking at opportunities to enhance our operation and service offering to meet what I see as future developing needs,” Grover says. “The sustainable movement is one of those that I believe many of our members believe is a fad or extreme beliefs. But as more and more cities and states enact legislation around sustainable efforts, I believe we sell ourselves short by not solving our problems before activists and governments get involved.”
With a long-term goal of eventual retirement, Grover partnered with Southfield Capital in 2021. Although still very involved, it has allowed him to relinquish responsibility with Pacific, and he now acts as an advisor and ambassador. With Southfield, they formed a parent company, Osprey Landscape Group and hired Josh Dake as CEO of Osprey and promoted Adam Flint to be vice president for their operations in Portland. This has enabled Grover to become more involved in philanthropic efforts.
For instance, he is very involved in the landscape program at OSU, where he and his wife have endowed a Sustainable Urban Landscape position. He is working on a rails-to-trails project from the Willamette Valley to the Oregon coast and is also supporting the effort to provide educational opportunities to underserved communities for K-8 education as well as high school. Additionally, over the past 8 years, Grover and Godinez have provided college scholarships to 20 of their employees’ children who are first-generation attendees.
“My goal is to support development of outdoor regional resources and provide the opportunity for people to improve their personal situation through education,” Grover says.
Grover says he is highly motivated to use his time and resources to support the communities and industry that push him forward.
“There are a lot of people who are very involved like I am that give much of their time and resources, but I think that club is too small and if there is any goal or motivation that I might have at this point, would be to help, encourage, inspire others to think beyond themselves on their family and what they can do for their community and this industry,” Grover says.
Grover will receive his award during ELEVATE in Tampa, Florida, on Nov. 8-11.
An abridged version of this article will be published in the September/October/November issue of the magazine. To read more stories from The Edge magazine, click here to subscribe to the digital edition.
