Shayne Newman, founder and president of YardApes in New Milford, Connecticut, credits his upbringing to his ultimate career choice in landscaping. Having spent so much time outdoors as a kid made it seem virtually impossible to choose a career that involved the confines of four walls every day. “I don’t just like being outside; I […]
For years, H. Jaclyn Ishimaru-Gachina, president and CEO of Gachina Landscape Management, was by her husband’s side as he ran the company. A “Game of Thrones” fan, Ishimaru-Gachina jokes that she was like the “hand of the King.” Though she was at home raising her boys, Ishimaru-Gachina’s husband, John, spoke about every aspect of the […]
During a UPS strike while Ben Carruthers was working there, he needed a way to make some additional money while attending college. He started mowing lawns and quickly found that he liked the outdoor work. In fact, he enjoyed it so much he decided to switch from a business major to horticulture. That ultimately led […]
In high school, Mark Borst, owner, Borst Landscape & Design, mowed lawns and worked for a local landscaper to earn an income. And for a long time, he was content with being a one-man-and-a-truck type of business. But when he started college, he realized there was so much more to the profession. “I suddenly realized […]
Coming to the lawn and landscape industry from the Marines, Joe Lewis, account manager for Environmental Management Inc. (EMI), based in Plain City, Ohio, has found more crossovers than he ever imagined. His experience and training in the Marines gave him effective training tools to use at EMI. And that’s important, as Lewis believes effective […]
Jack Moore spent three decades in corporate America before he realized it wasn’t what he loved. After many years cooped up in a boardroom and flying on airplanes, Moore relished the idea of a career that would get him outside. In 2017, after looking seriously at 100 different companies in different industries, Moore and his […]
Dan Stearns, professor emeritus of landscape contracting at Penn State University, first got a taste of being an educator while in graduate school. He knew it was something he would enjoy as a profession. While the right opportunity didn’t come around for another 12 years, Stearns says his time spent in the industry, working as […]
Prior to founding Landscape Maintenance Professionals (LMP), Orlando Castillo Jr., says he was working part-time for a friend who owned a landscape company—and valet parking cars in the evening. But he had developed an entrepreneurial spirit from his father and decided he could launch his own company. In the “early days,” Castillo says the company […]
Born and raised in the beautiful city of Medellin, Colombia, Lizeth Miller has spent most of her life in South America. She earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Medellin-Colombia and completed an internship in the Bank of Bogota as a credit analyst. But Miller was looking for something different. In 2014 […]
A former high school math teacher who graduated with a degree in philosophy, Doug Delano puts a lot of emphasis on education. He believes in the power of knowledge. So when he came to landscaping as a later career—getting hired at Ruppert Landscape—Delano threw himself into learning as much as he could. However, in 1998, […]