Jerry Schill founded Schill Grounds Management in 1993, and as CEO he sets the strategic vision for the company and makes executive and financial decisions that drive profitable growth and scale.

Beginning in 2020, Jerry partnered with Argonne Capital to proactively drive consolidation in the highly fragmented commercial grounds management and snow and ice removal industry by acquiring independent privately held businesses that add contiguous geographic expansion for Schill.

Jerry has three decades of leadership experience, and he believes in running the business with family values, integrity, respect and honesty. He also holds leadership positions with industry professional organizations including serving as an active member of the Accredited Snow Contractors Association’s Government Affairs Committee and the Ohio Landscape Association’s Snow and Ice Committee.

Jerry earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Glenville State College. He is also the founder of Holiday Feast, an annual event that provides free meals for thousands of people in the Cleveland area. Jerry’s contributions to the industry were recognized when he was chosen for the National Leadership Award by SNOW Magazine and Lawn & Landscape Magazine.

Connect with Jerry!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-schill-2b010b1a/

https://www.schilllandscaping.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/schill-grounds-management/

Account Executive at TOP Green, a company revolutionizing the commercial landscaping industry. A veteran of the US Marine Corps, Sean brings that same discipline and strategic focus to the world of SaaS, empowering businesses to embrace cutting-edge technology and achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency. With a passion for driving impactful change, he's helping hardworking businesses across the country optimize their operations, reduce inefficiencies, and unlock their full potential. 

Connect with Sean!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-eddy/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-turing-company/

https://theturingcompany.com/products/topgreen/landscaping/

Evan Shufflebarger

Evan is a native of Topeka, KS and a University of Kansas alumni with a diverse background in consulting, investing, and M&A. After starting his career in internal consulting at a Fortune 150 financial services firm, he transitioned to buyside credit investing, where he advanced from data analytics for structured products to managing private equity investments and commercial real estate lending. Evan's next role, his first in M&A, was with a large family-owned logistics company, focusing on acquisitions, joint ventures, and capital projects.

Since joining HeartLand in 2020, he has led or supported over 20 acquisitions, driving sourcing, diligence, and integration while shaping the company’s Business Intelligence strategy. Evan is a former Kansas City 20 Under 30 honoree and ACG Corporate Development Professional to Watch.

Tanner Spross

Tanner started in the landscaping industry at a young age, growing up in his father’s business and working in the summers and weekends on installation crews. In 2012, the family business merged with Santa Rita Landscaping, and upon graduating from the University of Arizona, Tanner became the full time estimator for its Commercial and Public Works Division. Over time Tanner served as the companies Director of Sales and Operations, before ultimately becoming the President and CEO in 2018.

In his time as the President and CEO of Santa Rita Landscaping, Tanner was able grow the business over 300%, greenfield operations into the Phoenix Market, lead M&A activity for the business, and lead the sale side of the business twice, most recently in 2023 when the business partnered with HeartLand.

Since joining the HeartLand team, Tanner has since become Operating Partner for the Southwest Region, providing leadership for the HeartLand companies throughout the Southwest United States.

Colin grew up in southern England in the countryside spending most of his childhood on a farm with a love of wild flower meadows and nature. His passion led him to employment within conservation organisations but in the late 1990’s when his best friend lost his wife in tragic circumstances he switched jobs to help support him with his woodland consultancy business and out of the blue they landed a fascinating contract advising on and managing wildlife habitat restoration projects for a philanthropic family on a large country estate, many of these projects involved grassland areas which had lost their floral content. This serendipitous event was the start of his wild flower meadow journey. The owner of the estate gave him great support and freedom, allowing him to experiment with different methods for creating and restoring wild flower meadows on her land. At that time there was a lot of different advice being given from various organisations regarding how one should go about creating or restoring these special habitats. Colin trialled various methods, some did not work at all, he sowed the seeds but just grass came up and other methods produced a few wild flowers after a long period of time and others produced a profusion of weeds very quickly! He was convinced that there had to be better ways and quicker ways to create very floristic and diverse meadows.

It took time and experimentation but eventually he was able to reliably create colourful and diverse native wild flower grasslands in most situations and had learnt how to deal with the weed issues that dogged some of the earlier attempts. Colin began creating wild flower areas for other people and set up the current ‘Wild Flower Lawns and Meadows’ website originally as a hobby, expanding it with blogs sharing experience and knowledge gained in the field (literally) and the interest it created not only within the UK but internationally took him by surprise and now it is a multi-faceted company selling unique wild flower products and involved with more native wild flower projects than he could ever have imagined when he started.

Rob Murray is the Co-founder and CEO of Intrigue Media, a digital marketing company that has been empowering and growing businesses in the home improvement space for the last 15 years. Intrigue has been on Canada's Growth 500 list for four years, is a Google Premier Partner and is Meta Certified. Rob directs the organizational vision, works with clients to grow their businesses, and ensures that Intrigue has the right people and the right tools to get results. He is the past President of the Entrepreneurs' Organization in Southwest Ontario and past digital marketing chair for his local hospital board.

Brad started his first landscape business at age 8 with his older brother. They started in residential landscape maintenance with a route of 10 homes. After 4 years of building the business, they landed their first commercial accounts maintaining 2 hospital campuses in Denver, CO. He ran his company for a total of 10 years and sold the company at the age of 18. To broaden his life experience and serve people in a foreign country, Brad took two years off from college and work to serve as a missionary for his church in Brazil. During this time, he learned Portuguese and developed his leadership skills overseeing 200 missionaries while managing the mission operations throughout the state of Sao Paulo. He returned to college to pursue a degree in Horticulture with a focus in irrigation and water management where he competed in and won numerous events at the National Collegiate Landscape Competition. 

Coming out of college, Brad had offers from most of the major landscape players in the country but was looking for a company where he could pursue his interest in smart irrigation and water management. Par 3, located in Las Vegas, was the perfect fit as they were the clear leader in a market that was conserving more water than any place in the country. 

Par 3 was years ahead of the competition in water management, but Brad saw a need to develop and grow irrigation management alongside their water conservation programs. Brad convinced the owners that he could build a stand-alone irrigation division that would create uniformity and professionalism amongst the scattered group of irrigation techs that already worked for the company. 

Brad's success in building a new division from the ground up as a recent college graduate put him on an accelerated career path and less than 3 years after joining Par 3 he became the Director of Operations where he oversees nearly 600 employees and over $50 million in annual revenue.

Jennifer Lemcke brings over 30 years of experience to her leadership role at Weed Man, where she first began her career as a manager trainee in Ottawa in 1993. Over the years, Jennifer has worked in every department within the company, gaining hands-on knowledge and a deep understanding of the lawn care industry. Her journey with Weed Man saw her rise from General Manager of Weed Man Ottawa, where she helped grow the franchise revenue from $200,000 to $2 million in five years, to a key player in the company’s expansion across North America. Her leadership played a crucial role in launching the Weed Man brand in the United States, and she later acquired global rights to the brand in 2018.

As the driving force behind Weed Man’s success, Jennifer oversees operations in over 853 territories across the United States and Canada, with franchise system sales surpassing $390 million. Her passion for supporting franchisees and creating growth opportunities has led to the launch of Mosquito Hero, a new sub-brand aimed at providing additional revenue streams. Outside of work, Jennifer values her family life and takes pride in fostering a sense of community within the Weed Man family. An avid traveler and golf enthusiast, she enjoys spending time with loved ones and contributing to the future growth of the company.

Register for the Weathermatic x Wilson360 Webinar: https://bit.ly/WeathermaticW360

Rick Grimes is a 30-year technology professional, with deep experience in Marketing, Operations, and Data Analysis. He has held leadership positions at companies of all sizes, ranging from some of the biggest companies in the world, such as Microsoft and Yahoo, to small startups that were still figuring out what to call themselves.

Rick caught the AI bug about two years ago and has been using, teaching, and evangelizing AI ever since. He has taught hundreds of people how to incorporate AI into both their professional and personal workflows to create efficiencies and enable new capabilities. He uses AI to supercharge many aspects of his day, from engaging it as a strategic thought partner to helping him create copy to building a Spanish tutor for his son so Rick could watch his Steelers play while his son worked on his Spanish vocabulary. Rick is currently Director of Marketing at Ai Layer Labs, a Web3 startup at the intersection of AI and blockchain.

This is Brant Wichman who has run a successful high-end landscape construction company in Lincoln Nebraska for the past 14 years. As a contractor he interacted with customers each and every day and kept thinking that there has to be a way to help contractors know their client better before they step foot on their property. A reverse Angie, a reverse BBB.... something.

One day he took a leap of faith and took the blue collar mentality to tech country and started to develop this app for contractors. A few years later Customer Insight NOW was born.  A fast and easy-to-use software that allows a contractor to look up critical information on their client before they even step foot out of their trucks!! Ability to pay, Credit Score, disposable income, and more is what you will get with this!! All for less than 10 bucks.

If you are in sales, you know that there are many ways to pitch or sell a client.... but if you knew who your client was before you got out of your truck.... Game Over!

Check out their website at https://www.customerinsightnow.com/?aff=diGs0zKL78zS

An experienced operational leader with a proven track record in the horticulture and arboriculture industries, I am passionate about plants, trees, and fostering growth—both for nature and the people I work with. Over the years, I have developed expertise in team building, negotiation, budgeting, plant identification, and operations management, all of which have contributed to my success in leading diverse teams. My leadership is centered around creating collaborative, high-performing environments that drive results and adapt seamlessly to change. I find great satisfaction in helping others grow professionally, mentoring team members to achieve their career aspirations and build a sense of purpose in their work.

Throughout my career, I have led large teams through significant transitions, ensuring smooth operations and maintaining morale during challenging periods. My focus on team development has been key to empowering individuals, promoting a culture of support, and achieving collective success. With a deep passion for horticulture, I am dedicated to creating environments where both people and plants thrive, cultivating a sense of fulfillment and achievement in all that I do.