Developing green thumbs

Marcel Boonekamp grew up in a small village in The Netherlands near Rotterdam, where his parents ran a greenhouse operation growing tomatoes.

“That’s how I grew up,” he says.

As he got older, Boonekamp continued his education, studying abroad in New Zealand and Canada in addition to earning a degree. In his 20s, as he was earning his Bachelor’s degree in horticulture, that’s when he decided to fully pursue his family’s career as his own.

“Aside from growing plants. The thing I like is that this industry is willing to share,” he says. “We’re visiting each other, sharing growing tips. My dad had groups of five or six growers that prepared their crops by walking every week in each company’s facilities and sharing costs. They compared data, financial info, labor concerns, energy costs and I was impressed by that. And it's also not something you can just copy. It’s still something you have to do.”

“I’m convinced,” he adds, “that sharing and doing that is how we all get better.”

Today, Marcel is the director of growing at Green Circle Growers in Oberlin, Ohio — one of the largest greenhouses in the United States. There, at a 150-acre-plus facility, he oversees the largest orchid production facility in the United States. His job involves technical growing aspects, but also picking out the right varieties, using state-of-the-art technology to optimize growing conditions and planning out the growing space for maximizing efficiency. Green Circle regularly expands, so part of Marcel’s job is “always being ready for the next thing.”

“He’s about building people up and giving people their opportunities,” says his wife Jacqueline. “He’s not one to yell and say, ‘This is how it has to be done.’ He will say, ‘If you have a better idea, tell me.’ If you have the right mentality, he’s the best boss you could have.”

“We are on 150 acres. We are not a small place,” says Corwin Graves, Green Circle’s VP of growing, who has worked with Marcel for six years overall and more closely in the last three years. “For me to just be able to meet with him weekly, and just support him with the resources he needs and not have to look over every little thing, it’s huge. I do not go in that greenhouse and walk the rows and track the details because I know he’s doing that and I know his team is doing that. There isn’t that need to babysit or micromanage.”

Starting out

When he graduated, Marcel took on co-ownership of his family business. A year later, his older brother joined the family business, too. They then transitioned the business over to cut rose production, forming Boonekamp Roses in 2002.

“It was a tough one — it’s a lot of work to build the brand up,” he says. “But that was one of the reasons why I did it. [In The Netherlands], it's hard to build a brand in tomatoes.”

The transition was initially successful. They built a second high-tech facility a year later, seeing a booming future for the company.

“The headwinds were strong,” Marcel says.

But when the world economy started to shift around 2008, the business did, too. Energy prices rose, making the cost of business higher and higher every year. Boonekamp Roses shut down in 2013.

This, however, opened up new paths for him. The end of one chapter meant something new — and a new country.

“This was the first time where I really looked at what I wanted to do,” he says. “I didn’t want to leave the industry — it’s a great industry, it’s an open industry where we share a lot. And working with plants and people is great. It’s still the one industry I want to be active in.”

Coming to Green Circle

After he shut down his own business, Marcel says it wasn’t his plan or dream to move to the United States. Or anywhere abroad for that matter. He and Jacqueline were most worried about their young family. They have three children — Jessie, Milou and Leon — who they wanted to make sure would grow up in the best environment for them.

“Horticulture, at that time, was becoming more and more international,” he says. “The Netherlands led with techniques and equipment. So I knew there was demand abroad. But [going abroad] wasn’t my first choice.”

But, as it happened, a recruiter connected Marcel to Green Circle Growers. He and Jacqueline went on a visit to Green Circle. During the tour, he was impressed with the facility and what the work offered him. The Oberlin area also felt like a good place for the Boonekamp family to establish new roots.

He started at Green Circle in 2015 as a grower manager and is now the director of growing overseeing the orchid facility. He and his family started out by living in a house on the farm's property.

“It wasn’t the United States that sold us per se,” he says. “I think Green Circle, and what they were doing, I really liked their orchid program and that’s where I spend most of my time now. Ownership, the company itself — they offered opportunities to grow and get better. And I could see how I would value the company and the people.”

“We came here with five pieces of luggage and 20 boxes,” Jacqueline says. “The van Wingerden family [was] awesome, helping with babysitting and just being great people on top of being a great employer.”

Marcel says the emigration process was a challenge for this family.

“At the time, the kids were about eight, six and four,” he says. “They picked up English [easily], at least compared to the adults. But it was an adjustment for them, to make friends, learn the language. It wasn’t easy, but they pulled it off. And I’m really thankful for my wife — she did the most work on that part.”

“At work,” he adds, “you're stepping in, observing a lot, talking a lot with people to see how things work and find out the culture, both American culture and company culture. Before you really start to implement things or start to understand things, you have to do that. It wouldn’t work if I walked in and said, ‘We’re going to do it the Dutch way’ or ‘I think I know it all.’ It’s already a successful running company. It’s finding out how you think you can make things better.”

Pieces of home

Marcel has kept up with two hobbies from back home: indoor soccer and windsurfing. He plays in an indoor soccer league near Oberlin. And while he can’t watch every game, he is a fan of Ajax, one of the best teams in the Netherlands and in Europe, as well as the Dutch national team.

Windsurfing, he says, was popular in the 1980s when he was growing up. His dad got him and his brothers into it, but then work and family cut into time for hobbies. But he brought his old windsurfing equipment in the move and now windsurfs up on Lake Erie.

“It’s a great feeling being on the water,” he says. “It’s one of the best sports for me.”

Making time for hobbies, he says, is another way his father influenced him.

“Growing up, my dad didn’t play a lot of sports,” he says. “But in his 20s, he started to road bike, speed ice skate, stuff like that. So he was always working, but I also saw him finding time for sports. He told me that [sports] are a different energy you use and I really found later on that he’s right. It clears up your mind and it helps you stay fit, and that’s important.”

Blending two worlds

Part of Marcel’s job is blending his Dutch background with North American style greenhouse growing. It can be challenging to mesh, he says, because the markets are so different. But a program like Green Circle’s orchid program is somewhat fashioned after the Dutch model of dialing in one specific crop. They also use a Dutch greenhouse manufacturer, various Dutch suppliers and Dutch breeders.

“We want to be on the forefront of new technology — if it makes sense, if it’s manageable.”

Part of keeping up to date on technology are multiple trips a year to the Netherlands to visit growers and attend trade shows. There, Marcel does his version of what he saw his father do while he was growing up: network, learn from others in the field and take lessons back to Green Circle.

“I do those trips to see new things, to see new people, to talk to people, to stay in touch with exactly what I started with growing up,” he says. “That makes you better, makes you sharper.”

When he goes on trips, Marcel often brings other Green Circle employees with him so they can learn along with him.

“[New production information] can be hard to explain sometimes,” he says. “I’ve seen that bringing people along and then coming back from the trip they’ll be like ‘ah, now I know why we are looking at that.’ It’s all about letting people see why I’m looking at something a certain way or want to change something. Otherwise, people only see Green Circle, right? We are diverse, but they have to see something else to be open minded and get the broader picture.”

“He loves innovation,” says Aaron Porter, Green Circle’s grower manager. “If there’s anything that can make our jobs easier or more efficient, he’s all for it.”

Aaron traveled with Marcel on a trip to the Netherlands last November.

“That’s him in his element,” Aaron says.

“He helps us take stock of where we are within the global industry and what the opportunities are,” Corwin says. “Being a native Dutch speaker, having those connections, it opens up doors for us.”

Corwin adds that the way Marcel runs his team provides a good model for other managers. The Green Circle orchid program, he says, helped them sell other crops (namely foliage) because the orchid quality was so high.

“We are looking to implement what he does into other areas,” Corwin says. “He’s brought a level of professionalism that I’d like to see brought into the other greenhouse areas.”

Overseeing orchids and growers

According to Corwin, what makes Marcel “rare” is his ability to excel at both the growing parts of his job and the leadership parts. Some people, he says, are more suited for one or the other. Or, if they’ve been promoted, leave some of the growing responsibilities behind.

That’s just not how Marcel is wired.

“He’s so strong on details,” Corwin said. “He’s one of the rare people who has the ability to grow and has a good feeling for what it takes to grow plants. But he also understands people and people respond to him really well. He really excels at being a cheerleader for the staff in terms of rallying them and keeping employees engaged and building the team up.”

“He will help you up the ladder if that’s your ambition,” Jacqueline says. “You have to be showing your worth. If you’re trying to cut corners everywhere, then you might not mesh. He wants to help you develop your green thumb, but if you’re not putting your best effort in, it’s not going to be a green thumb.”

For Marcel, the key is communication. Clear expectations are set for employee behavior, as well as what the orchids require. From there, it’s about open dialogue. He meets with team members one-on-one weekly to talk about how everything is going, what concerns they have and what they need from him. It’s something Marcel took the initiative to do because he felt it would make the team stronger.

“If you don’t speak up,” Marcel says, “issues or frustrations linger.”

Aaron says Marcel also chips in however he needs to.

“He's not afraid to roll up his sleeves or get dirty if we need to move tables or anything that's not glamorous,” he says. “He’s hands-on with leadership. … He never expects anyone to do anything he won’t do.”

That includes upgrades at Green Circle. Andrew van Geest, a productivity specialist at Adept Ag that works on irrigation with Green Circle, says Boonekamp works hand-in-hand with him during upgrades and always is dialed into exactly what the facility needs. Since they’ve been working together, they’ve completed three irrigation projects.

“He is always cognizant of what he's asking for,” Andrew says. “And it makes the growers under him better. It makes the company better.”

Orchids are Marcel’s focus, his domain at Green Circle. According to Corwin, orchids fit what makes Marcel a standout grower and leader.

“It’s a mono crop, so you are allowed to be detailed with settings and parameters and what you’re tracking,” Corwin says. “His personality is really suited to that in terms of just being on top of details and small tweaks and just getting every last inkling of performance out of the crops. He has the personality for it and we have the facilities for it, so it’s a nice match.”

Green Circle has grown in the last several years. As part of whatever comes next, part of Marcel’s job will be helping Green Circle balance what it grows vs. what the market demands. They also want to continue expanding their national footprint while also expanding their internal sustainable practices.

“It sounds really big,” he says. “But we are getting close to that.”

As that happens, Marcel will be there, overseeing everything working to grow plants — and the people growing them.

“In a healthy way, it’s pushing people to accomplish more,” he says. 