Setting the standard

Each year, we honor leaders from the greenhouse and nursery industries with Horticultural Industries Leadership Awards (HILAs). Now in its seventh year, the HILAs toast those who exemplify the most admirable qualities such as personnel development, community volunteerism and industry contributions.

In this month’s issue of Greenhouse Management, read excerpts from profiles of three people from the HILA Class of 2023: Marcel Boonekamp from Green Circle Growers, Zach Herrill from United Plant Growers and Jennifer Moss from Moss Greenhouses. Learn how they help lead their businesses in and out of the greenhouse.

Photo by Tiana Kropko

MARCEL BOONEKAMP,

Director of Growing, Green Circle Growers

According to Corwin Graves, Green Circle Growers’ vice president of growing, what makes Marcel Boonekamp “rare” is his ability to excel at both the growing parts of his job with 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 Boonekamp is wired.

“He’s so strong on details,” Graves 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,” his wife 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 Boonekamp, 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. According to Graves, it’s something he took initiative on his own to do because he felt it would make the team stronger.

“If you don’t speak up,” Boonekamp says, “issues or frustrations linger. We need to fix those. The more issues are fixed, the better we do. And a lot of the time, they are simple issues that can be cleared up easily and open up mind space to work on the bigger picture.”

Porter says Boonekamp 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,” van Geest says. “And it makes the growers under him better. It makes the company better.”

Orchids are Boonekamp’s focus, his domain at Green Circle. According to Graves, orchids fit what makes Boonekamp 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,” Graves 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, Boonekamp says, has grown in the last several years. As part of whatever comes next, part of his job will be working on helping Green Circle balance what it grows vs. what the market is demanding. They also want to continue expanding their national footprint.

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

As that happens, Boonekamp 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. — Chris Manning

ZACH HERRILL,

CEO, United Plant Growers

When COVID hit, United Plants CEO Zach Herrill had already overcome a major challenge to UPG’s growth: His parents had built a solid multi-million-dollar company. Having a bigger business wasn’t part of their dream. “They were very happy having 25 employees,” Herrill says.

The difference in perspective wasn’t easily bridged.

“I knew we needed to get bigger trucks. I knew we needed to shift to semis and larger trucks and a racking system. I knew we needed to use production lines and conveyor belts. All that takes a lot of investment,” he says. It took about eight years for his parents to embrace his vision and see results.

By 2020, UPG was better prepared than most. Herrill had strengthened its supply chain and its business with Home Depot and IKEA, which both flourished during COVID. As other businesses struggled and closed, UPG was positioned to buy. Acquisitions expanded its customer base to include Trader Joe’s, Costco and Sprouts. Business doubled in six months.

In his years at UPG — the last five on overdrive — Herrill has restructured and redefined how it’s run. The company operates three separate distribution centers: one for Home Depot, one for IKEA and a “grocery” distribution center servicing Costco, Trader Joe’s and Sprouts. A full UPG merchandising team is on-site in Home Depot stores every single day. UPG’s four growing locations combine for roughly 65 acres, with about a million square feet of controlled growing environment.

Several mentors played significant roles in his journey, including Home Depot Senior Merchant Brian Parker. “People know him as the one of the toughest buyers in the industry,” Herrill shares. “He’s taught me a ton about the retail side, and I’ve learned so much from him about consumers, what retailers are looking for and how to present to them, he’s been instrumental in our growth.”

Parker himself remembers starting in the horticulture business 40-plus years ago, watering plants in a Kmart garden center. Like those who took him under their wings, he felt moved do the same for Herrill. With so few young people following their parents into the horticulture industry, Parker was “thrilled” when Herrill took over UPG — and he was confident in his success.

As a vendor and a leader, Parker says, listening differentiates Herrill. “He got a very good education from his father on the business, but his number one priority was listening to his customer — which was me,” Parker says. As a result, Home Depot quadrupled its UPG business the last 10 years.

“More than anything else, Zach listens. He understands he has a lot to learn, but he does have a vision,” Parker says. “For the last four years, he was very strategic in how he grew that business. He knows that if you can’t take care of the business, don’t do it. That said, he's still willing to take risks. He’s a risk taker, which is what’s going to make him successful in the long run.”

Herrill’s readiness to listen extends to his teams. Wholesale sales manager Traci Kelemen joined UPG three years ago, after four decades in floral and potted plant sales and marketing. In her career, she’s experienced leaders and companies where suggestions and questions are quickly shut down. But not here.

“Zach is always looking to improve. You bring something up and it’s like ‘Let’s explore that idea.’ It's a whole different attitude,” Kelemen says. “He’s been in the industry most of his life, but still has that passion to make things different or innovate. It’s easy to say, ‘Been there, done that.’ But he continues to try to find new ways of making it better.” — Jolene Hansen

JENNIFER MOSS,

Moss Greenhouse

At 8 a.m. each day, Jennifer Moss’ phone alarm sounds and the words “strong, consistent, heart-forward” appear on the screen. These three words make up her personal and professional mission statement. It’s how she shows up, no matter the place or situation.

“Heart-forward means a few things,” she says. “I can be a caring person and really support your team and your people without being a pushover. It also means that I always want to leave people better than when I found them.”

Whether it’s an employee, a vendor, a supplier or a colleague, Moss is consistently upfront and transparent. She consistently withholds judgement. She consistently looks for new opportunities for her employees, for the business, for the industry and for herself. Consistency most definitely does not mean the same ‘ol-same ‘ol with Moss.

She can be strong each day thanks in part to lessons from her parents and her athletic background. Moss is a lifelong skier and competed in the Junior Olympics. She continues to use fitness to keep her body and mind strong with CrossFit and triathlon and Ragnar relay training.

“I’ve set a gigantic goal for myself. I’m going to be in the best shape of my life by the time I’m 40. I just turned 38 in March,” she says. “But part of that journey is getting really strong and getting my athlete body back. ... I told myself, ‘I’m doing it. There’s nothing standing in my way.’”

Moss handles proverbial business and personal mountains in much the same way, including a serious situation that helped her become CEO of the family business. She remembers the day, the year and even the time that changed the trajectory of her career.

“I will never forget the day we lost our largest customer in 2017. It was Feb. 16 at 2 p.m. when he walked in,” she recalls. “We were doing 30% of our business with this one customer at the time. And they walked in and said, ‘We’re liquidating the business. I hope we told you soon enough.’ And my dad sat there and said, ‘I’ve got 70% of the seed planted. No, you didn’t tell us soon enough.’ So I hit the ground running,” she explains. “I had to ... identify a couple of chains that we could gain to make up for the loss. That’s the year I started to really earn my stripes and gain the respect of my coworkers and peers. At the end of the season, I was able to recapture 89% of the sales. It was tough.”

Prior to that bomb getting dropped on the company, the family (Moss, her parents and her brother, Dewey) had a succession planning meeting and the consensus was that her brother Dewey would eventually be named CEO.

“I agreed with them at the time ...,” Moss says. “He was more level-headed, he was less emotional and he was more consistent. So that was the plan.”

She wanted to come across calm, put together, direct and driven. “So I really worked on changing my responses and my reactions. I was seeing a life coach, Brendon Burchard, who wrote High Performance Habits. It changed my life.”

That’s part of the reason she’s now CEO.

“I outperformed the expectation, I launched myself and I earned my spot,” she says.

Last summer, the family decided to change the original plan.

“My parents felt that I was a good choice for the helm of the ship. My brother and I ... agreed we could make this work and he became chief operations officer. My brother is an awesome partner. Where I’m weak, he's strong, and where he’s weak, I’m strong. We’re a good complement to each other.” — Kelli Rodda