The Commercial Landscaper Podcast

For the past 26 years, Josh has worked in the landscape industry.  After graduating from Virginia Tech, he relocated to southern California and began his career in the wholesale nursery industry where he served as Director of Operations for a 250 acre growing facility.  In 2002, he transitioned into Landscape Management as an Account Manager and Sports Turf Manager at TruGreen LandCare.  In 2005, he went to work for Brickman in San Diego where he held positions from Enhancement Manager to Vice President and General Manager for both the LA and San Diego Markets.  In 2017 and after the transition to BrightView, Josh was promoted to Senior Vice President of the Southwest and later to Group Senior Vice President of the Southwest and Texas where he oversaw teams of up to 3,000 employees and $400M in revenue.

Josh now serves as CEO of the newly formed Osprey Landscape Group based out of San Diego.  Osprey was formed as a holding company in late 2023 and currently operates Pacific Landscape Management in Portland, OR and Pacific Landscape Maintenance in Seattle, WA.  Building on Pacific’s strong reputation for quality and culture in the Pacific Northwest, Osprey is continuing it’s expansion across the western United States through organic growth and a strong M&A strategy.

Kevin McHale, along with his brother Steve, founded McHale Landscape Design in 1981 upon graduation from West Virginia University. Kevin is President of McHale Landscape Design and has served on the University of Maryland Landscape Advisory Board, The Penn St Landscape Advisory Board and as LCA President in 1996 and again in 2006. Kevin was recognized by the LCA last year with the Landscape Leadership Award which is presented to landscape professionals who have shown exceptional leadership and have positively impacted the landscape industry.

McHale Landscape Design is a “Residential Design Build/Estate Gardening Firm” serving the Washington DC market including Northern Virginia, Maryland and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The company operates 6 locations throughout the region and also maintains a 50 Acre Nursery which caters only to the McHale client base. The firm has won over 400 local and national Landscape Awards. The McHale business model focuses on the “Single Source” philosophy and the company employs “In House” carpentry and masonry crews to assure the clients experience is exceptionally seamless.

Brett Gordon is the COO and a Partner of Focal Pointe, a $50M commercial landscaping company serving the Midwestern United States.  After founding and leading Signature Landscapes of Oklahoma, Brett and the Signature team chose to bring their operational excellence to Focal Pointe’s platform of industry leading customer service and retention.

Brett is a Landscape Architect graduate from Oklahoma State University, and his passion for creating beautiful spaces has only grown.  As COO, Brett is responsible for leading the company’s seven Branch Managers throughout Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  In his free time, Brett enjoys spending time with his family, golfing, and streaking the OSU campus during home football games.

Connect with Brett on LinkedIn!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-gordon-9b28b52b/

Jenny Girard is currently an Implementation Specialist with BOSS Software at The Integra Group, a business solutions company dedicated to serving the green and snow industries. In this role, Jenny leverages her extensive industry expertise to onboard new clients, optimizing their operations and improving their efficiency through BOSS's innovative software solutions. Her commitment to driving growth and operational excellence is complemented by her pursuit of an MBA to enhance her business skills and strategic insights.

Before joining The Integra Group, Jenny held key roles across the green industry and snow industries. She graduated with an Honors Bachelor's degree in Plant Science from SUNY Cobleskill and has over 15 years of experience. Those roles included Production at Longwood Gardens, Specialty Landscape Designer at Busch Gardens/SeaWorld Parks, and Area Manager for RM Landscape. While she was at RM Landscape, she oversaw accounts and operations in Buffalo, NY, for both green and snow as well as served as the strategic coordinator for corporate initiatives. Jenny's dedication to the green and snow industries is reflected in her active contributions to several committees with NALP, SIMA, and the Patch Project. In recognition of her leadership, she was named NALP’s Young Professional of the Year in 2023.

Christianna holds the title of Chief Financial Officer for Landscape Workshop.  Landscape Workshop is a commercial landscaping company headquartered in Birmingham, AL and was listed as number 27 on Lawn and Landscape's most recent Top 100 list, with projected revenue of over $145M for 2024.  Christianna has been with Landscape Workshop since 2015.  She has also worked for M&T bank in Buffalo, New York.

Christianna received a BS in Economics and Business Administration from Birmingham-Southern College.  Christianna Chairs the Rotaract Club of Birmingham's Foundation Board and enjoys running, watching sports (Roll Tide and Go Bills), and most of all spending time with her husband, Cole and two children Harlow (3) and Jack (1).

Matt Hunter is the owner and President of New Garden Landscaping and Nursery, Nature’s Select Piedmont and Landscape Irrigation Systems (LIS) in Greensboro, NC. While New Garden has been in business for 47 years, Matt joined the team in 2015 as The Director of Business Development. Matt purchased New Garden from Morris Newlin in 2020 and now serves as President and CEO. 

In the spring of 2024 he purchased Nature’s Select Piedmont which is a biologically enhanced lawn care company and Landscape Irrigation Systems (LIS) which is a leader in irrigation service and installation. Prior to his work at New Garden, he worked for TruGreen and John Deere Landscapes in various roles including sales and management. Matt received an associate degree in horticulture from North Carolina State University and a bachelors of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Matt has served as the legislative chair for the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association for the last 4 years.

Outside of work Matt enjoys spending time with his wife Christie of 23 years and his two daughters Katelyn who is a Sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill and Alexis who is a Junior at East Forsyth High School. Matt also enjoys working on his golf game and fly fishing.

Greg Wittstock, The Pond Guy, is owner and CEO of Aquascape, Inc., which he founded in 1991. He has been dabbling in water gardens since the age of 12 and has a love of everything water and turtles. After experimenting with ponds for over eight years, Greg had a “light bulb” moment during a drive home from the boring summer job he took during college in 1990. He decided that he wanted to do something he loved for a living – he wanted to build ponds. Just 30 seconds later, he had a company name, Aquascape. The next year, Greg began building ponds during his breaks in the school year. From there, he developed the Aquascape business model, which includes a mix of distribution, retail, and contractor services. Aquascape Inc. is now the leading manufacturer of water feature products in North America, serving and educating thousands of customers world-wide.

Greg authored The Pond Guy on Marketing, has appeared on the cover of Inc. Magazine, and was a cast member of Nat Geo Wild’s Pond Stars series. Follow Greg’s current adventures on his YouTube channel as he meets incredible people, views beautiful water features, and shares what it means to truly love and be Living the Aquascape Lifestyle®. https://www.youtube.com/gregwittstockthepondguy

Shelia Matthews has joined the Wilson360 team as culture practice leader and first-ever chief people officer. She leads people and organizational performance consulting for Wilson360 clients.

Shelia Matthews’ approach to scaling businesses is simple. Get the people part right and everything else falls into place. Shelia has worked with businesses from many different industries like manufacturing, services, and private equity to name a few. She’s worked for large Fortune companies like UPS and MetLife, and most recently, a small startup known as Acquisition.com, where she oversaw the People Operations function and scaled the company from a handful of employees to an army of amazing talent. While working in the private equity space, she helped hundreds of founders and business owners identify constraints in their business and offered practical solutions to help them scale.

Although Shelia loves the work she does, she is most passionate about helping business owners level up their companies. She strongly believes that you must have an understanding of the business in order to build a strong and healthy culture to support it. “Knowing HR and understanding people isn’t enough. You must be able to translate culture into profitability,” she says, right along with, “It’s more affordable to do the right thing for your people than you realize.”

Shelia is the founder of Culture Pro, LLC, where she offers fractional People Operations leadership to small services-based businesses. Culture Pro’s mission is to create environments where people thrive and the business flourishes.

Though originally from Florida, Shelia currently lives in the Atlanta suburbs with her husband and two children, who are five and ten years old. Her son is a competitive swimmer, and her daughter believes she is a princess. When Shelia isn’t being her kids' personal Uber driver, she spends her free time at the gym, traveling, or hiking with Ranger, the family’s Boxer dog. Shelia received an MBA from Colorado State University and prior to that, graduated with highest honors from the University of North Florida, where she received a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

The habitat of Zech Strauser’s childhood were the farms and free-ranging open spaces of eastern Pennsylvania. During a time when most children’s lives move indoors, Zech was homeschooled by parents who inspired his curiosity in the natural world, giving him a powerful connection with nature that defines him to this day.

Zech’s journey, from playing outdoors to making a living outdoors, was the road trip of a lifetime. He pursued the life of a ski instructor and mogul coach In Vermont, became interested in outdoor performance apparel, and in 1998, he launched one of eastern Pennsylvania’s most recognized regional landscape companies, a firm – Strauser Nature’s Helpers that was acquired by Schill Grounds Management in 2023.

Zech remains a senior advisor and investor in Schill Grounds Management and is an ongoing advisor and investor in Strauser Nature’s Helpers. He’s an investor in robotic mowing technology and owns and manages a commercial real estate portfolio. He’s shaped nature-focused non-profits and sat on the board of Come Alive Outside.

Recently, built a sustainable farm retreat in southern Vermont and launched Urture, a green collar workwear and outfitter specializing in gear for careers outside. “Urture brings me full-circle,” said Zech. “Growing up and being outdoors my entire life, I had a dream to have an outdoor clothing brand with the ability to make an impact. The rapid growth of green collar jobs gives me an opportunity to make sure that the people doing next generation green jobs have the right protective gear and apparel to do their jobs well.”

Part of Urture’s platform is its Patch Project passion project, a program that gives back to vocational schools that advance green collar careers. “We know that children need to play outside more. But it’s also true that everyone needs to be outside more. It’s on us to make nature a daily, ordinary part of everyone’s life and do what we can to make green jobs and the green economy a great career choice, supported by opportunities for training and growth.”

“Public school was a challenge and a vocational horticulture class in the 9th grade was an inspiration. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the teachers and the opportunity they gave me, gratitude I can repay through the Patch Project products we sell and the performance apparel we make, and our continued commitment to make sure that everyone who works in nature has what they need to succeed.

Meet Shawn Prince, President of Field Services at Attentive.ai. With over 17 years of experience in the field services industry, Shawn began his journey at Brickman/BrightView and has since played a pivotal role in driving revenue and exceeding sales targets for multiple landscaping businesses.

Now, at Attentive.ai, Shawn is leading the charge in transforming the field services industry by helping companies seamlessly integrate AI into their workflows. His expertise and vision are changing the way businesses operate, making them more efficient and competitive than ever before.