Josh Alpert
President; Green Earth Pest Control
Brooklyn, New York www.greenearthpest.com
Alpert is a consensus builder whose good-natured charisma makes other people want to follow his lead as one of the premier practioners of green pest management.
Tim Baietto*
Owner; Quik Kill Pest Eliminators
Streator, Illinois www.quikkill.com
Baietto’s active involvement and insights into the pest management industry give him a breadth of knowledge essential to making his influence known throughout the industry.
Jon Bain*
Director of Marketing; Copesan
Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin www.copesan.com
Bain’s stellar work for Copesan provides small-to medium-sized businesses the power of national brands.
Sean Bergmann
Owner; United Pest Solutions
Seattle, Washington www.unitedpestsolutions.com
Bergmann is heavily involved with the Washington State Pest Management Association, and he brings his influence to the LDG.
Burns Blackwell*
Vice President & COO; Terminix
Greensboro, North Carolina www.terminixtriad.com
Blackwell makes his commitment to the industry clear through his work at the forefront of educational efforts to increase the professionalism of PMPs.
Ryan Bradbury*
Vice President; Viking Termite & Pest Control
Bound Brook, New Jersey www.vikingpest.com
Bradbury’s involvement in local, state and national associations means he’s developing leadership skills that will serve the industry well in the future.
Juliette Campbell
HR/Purchasing Manager; Varment Guard Environmental Services
Columbus, Ohio www.varmentguard.com
Campbell is an integral member of the Future Pest Managers of Ohio group that is training future leaders in the state and is turning Varment Guard into a national company.
Russell Craber*
Owner; Sun Pest Management
Clarkston, Washington www.sunpest.com
Craber’s emphasis on educating his employees serves both his business and the industry well by promoting professionalism.
Bob Dold Jr.*
COO; Rose Pest Solutions
Chicago, Illinois www.rosepestsolutions.com
Dold is living up to his family’s legacy of leadership with his involvement with the NPMA and other local associations.
Marc Dykstra*
President; EnviroPest
Loveland, Colorado www.enviropest.com
Dykstra’s technological expertise has helped EnviroPest catapult into the position of being the largest private pest management firm in Colorado.
Joel Fagin
Vice President; Dial-A-Bug Pest Control
Brooklyn, New York www.dialabug.com
Fagin’s company has a superb reputation in the New York area for good customer service, which is why his company continues its rapid growth.
Scott Goldman*
Branch Manager; New England Pest Control
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts www.bluebug.com
Goldman continues to expand his roles in local and national associations — as well as building his business.
Missy Henriksen
PPMA Executive Director/Vice President; NPMA
Fairfax, Virginia www.npmapestworld.org
With her enthusiasm and experience, Henriksen continues the PPMA’s excellent work in bringing public attention to this profession.
Jarrod Horton
President; Anti-Pest Co.
Shreveport, Louisiana www.anti-pest.com
Horton’s leadership within the Louisiana pest management industry and in national organizations demonstrates his ability to lead the industry into the future.
Chris Kalsbeek*
GM; Advanced Integrated Pest Management
Roseville, California www.rosevilletermiteandpestcontrol.com
Kalsbeek continues to expand the company rapidly, making him a significant player in California.
Mike & Herschel Kesecker
Home Services Technician/Exclusion Specialist & Marketing and Sales Manager, respectively; Good Earth Pest Control
Philomath, Oregon www.goodearthpest.com
The Kesecker brothers are third-generation PMPs who are expanding the company’s businesses through their hard work and dedication.
Jeremy & Nam Kreer*
President/Owner & Vice President/Owner, respectively; Advanced Pest Management
Elkton, Maryland www.apmservices.com
These third-generation owners focus on treating their employees and customers like members of their extended family — and are growing their business because of it.
Glen Matthews III
Manager; Modern Exterminating Co.
Columbia, South Carolina www.modernexterminating.com
Matthews, a third-generation PMP, continues his family’s 54-year tradition of customer service and industry involvement at both the local, state and national levels.
Justin McCauley*
Vice President; Bug Man Pest Control
Benton, Arkansas www.bugmanarkansas.com
McCauley continues to expand his influence on the industry on national and local levels — and within his own company as well.
Kassandra Blake Mills*
General Manager; OPC Pest Control
Louisville, Kentucky www.opcpest.com
Mills helps the NPMA develop leaders among her peers, serves in her local association and is heavily involved with the Professional Women in Pest Management organization.
Cody Pace*
Commercial IPM Consultant; Eden Advanced Pest Technologies
Olympia, Washington www.edenpest.com
After having his company destroyed by a hurricane, Pace landed a job with Eden where his career has continued its ascent.
Court Parker*
COO; Bug Busters
Atlanta, Georgia www.bugbustersusa.com
Parker works hard on behalf of the industry as a Guardian Member of the PPMA, the LDG and the Wood-Destroying Organisms committee.
Molly Patton
COO; Patton Pest Control
Novelty, Ohio www.pattonpest.com
Patton is already making a name for herself as the vice president of the Greater Cleveland Pest Control Association and the treasurer of the Future Pest Managers of Ohio organization.
Nick Raschella*
Owner; Ace Exterminators
Belington, West Virginia www.aceexterminators.net
Raschella is a leader within his state and nationally already — his star can only continue to rise on both counts.
Erin Richardson*
Business Development Manager; All-American Pest Control
Nashville, Tennessee www.allamericanpestcontrol.com
Richardson leads by example, championing what she refers to as “green, sensible pest management.” Not only that, she serves as the president-elect of the Middle Tennessee Pest Control Association.
Kurt Scherzinger
Branch Manager; Scherzinger Pest Control
Dayton, Ohio www.stopzbugs.com
In addition to being involved nationally in the NPMA, he is president (and co-founder) of the Future Pest Managers of Ohio group.
Kurt Trombetti
President; EnviroSafe Pest Control
Las Vegas, Nevada www.lvpest.com
Under Trombetti’s leadership, starting in 2008, the Las Vegas Pest Control Association has grown from 15 to 93 companies and he’s put on the second-largest pest management show in the country — and his business is booming as well.
Ka Tsu
Territory Manager; ServicePro.net
Columbus, Ohio www.servicepro.net
Tsu passionately advocates for the industry and works hard to broaden the message of what the industry has to offer, particularly to more non-traditional constituencies.
Dena Wetlaufer*
Manager of IT, Planning and Development; Springer Professional Home Services
Des Moines, Iowa www.trustspringer.com
Wetlaufer is heavily involved in planning the company’s future and is active in several national associations.
Curtis Whalen*
Owner; Blue Sky Pest Control
Mesa, Arizona www.blueskypest.com
Whalen’s innovative pest management ideas make his company one of the fastest growing in the state.
Adam Witt*
General Manager; Witt Pest Management
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania www.wittpestmanagement.com
Witt’s continues his involvement in the industry through the NPMA and the other associations.
Andy Yant*
President; P.E.S.T. Inc.
Springfield, Tennessee www.pestinc.net
Yant exhibits an enthusiastic willingness to serve the industry on the local and national levels.
Jen Marlowe*
Marketing Director/Call Center Manager; Eden Advanced Pest Technologies
Olympia, Washington www.edenpest.com
Marlowe continues her innovative marketing work for the company. (Editor’s Note: Marlowe will marry fellow list member Justin McCauley this fall.)
An Honor Worth Mentioning
By Jen Marlowe ? Eden Advanced Pest Technologies
Being included on the first Worth Watching (40 & Under Future Leaders) list — and featured on the cover — last June was certainly a surprise. I hadn’t realized just how many young leaders there are in this industry, and I am honored to be a part of this group.
It’s an awesome experience to interact with other young pest management professionals in forums such as the National Pest Management Association’s (NPMA) Leadership Development Group (LDG). As young professionals, we not only learn from each other but we also root for each other’s successes.
Recognition, such as inclusion on this list, is a fun and exciting way to keep pest management professionals (PMPs) educated on the success and leadership this industry has to offer. This honor also serves as a warm reminder of the camaraderie and sense of community this industry enjoys. I’m extremely fortunate to be a part of the professional pest management industry.
Honestly, I’m still a little nervous about gaining this type of recognition so early in my career, as I’m still young and realize I have a lot to learn. I’m fortunate to have so many inspirational business leaders from which to learn and I’m blessed to be working for one of them — my father, Jack Marlowe.
Andy Architect*
Executive Director, QualityPro; National Pest Management Association
Fairfax, Virginia www.npmapestworld.org
Architect came for Hawaii, but stayed to serve once he met the selfless members of the pest management industry.
Architect joined the NPMA as the industry was headed to Honolulu for PestWorld 2004. Though he knew each year’s show would not be like 2004’s, he liked what he saw when he got there — convincing him that this was an industry of which he could be proud to be a part.
“I came from the hotel industry, which is such a cut-throat industry,” Architect says. “When I got to Hawaii, I saw all these competitors standing around sharing information with each other. I thought it was cool.
“To me, it was a revelation that competing members of an industry could actually get together and get along.”
Architect remains a major guardian of the industry’s professionalism as the executive director of QualityPro. What began as a small group of 50 companies has blossomed under Architect’s leadership to 325 companies. The program has also added two additional QualityPro designations — QualityPro Schools and QualityPro Green.
“I never imagined we’d ever grow to this point,” Architect says. “I figured we would eventually grow to have 100 companies participating, but I never imagined it would become such a force.”
Architect gives credit to the members for embracing both him and the program and for their ongoing commitment to improving the professionalism of the industry.
“It’s a pleasure and privilege to oversee this kind of a program, but ultimately it’s the owners and operators — and their employees — who really make this program work,” Architect says. “What is most gratifying to me is that whatever you decide to put into this industry, it comes back to you nearly immediately. It’s a lot of fun.” — FHA
Alexis Barbarin
Researcher; Penn State University
State College, Pennsylvania www.ento.psu.edu
Barbarin, who is currently finishing up her graduate work at Penn State University, is currently working on perhaps the hottest subject in the industry these days — bed bugs.
As a child growing up in New Orleans, Barbarin didn’t dream of researching bed bugs. But once she started focusing on entomology, she knew she wanted to do research on a pest whose control would help underprivileged urban residents like the ones she saw every day at home.
“I thought about doing cockroaches because there are always large cockroach populations in urban areas, but I decided they’d been done already,” Barbarin says. “Then I came upon bed bugs, which up until that point I thought were a joke.”
In her initial research, she realized that there hadn’t been much dedicated bed bug research conducted since the 1950s. When Barbarin realized bed bugs were an area she could make a serious difference in people’s lives, she jumped at the chance.
“My father always taught us to serve causes bigger than ourselves,” she says. “That’s what motivates me every day.”
Barbarin is getting her doctorate in entomology and will finish in 2011. She is working on a project to develop a protocol on how to raise bed bugs on types of blood other than humans (“It’s hard to find enough blood to do adequate research, so we need to figure out additional sources,” Babarin says). She is also researching what biological cues attract bed bugs to certain hosts in the hopes of developing a monitor.
As much publicity as bed bugs have received over the past three years, Barbarin says it’s amazing how little funding there is.
“Despite the effect bed bugs are having on the public, there’s not a lot of funding mechanisms for research,” Barbarin says. “I hope at some point that changes.” — FHA
Roberto Cortinas
Assistant Professor, Entomology/Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences; University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska www.entomology.unl.edu
Cortinas’ path to researching disease vectors like ticks is fueled by his love of medicine and his desire to help prevent the spread of diseases in humans.
Cortinas originally thought he wanted to become a doctor and then an ecobiologist, but neither of those fields captured his imagination the way veterinary sciences and entomology did. So when the opportunity presented itself at the University of Illinois to combine the two interests in the study of ticks (and the diseases related to them), he knew where his calling lay.
“It was perfect,” Cortinas says. “It’s exactly what I wanted to do. That was my ‘eureka’ moment — that’s when I realized what I was meant to do.”
Part of his position at the University of Illinois involved field research, which led him to discover another part of entomology that was unexpected, but for which his personality had made him particularly qualified.
“What they don’t tell you is that when you go out into the field, people are going to come up to you and ask questions about what you’re doing,” says Cortinas, laughing. “When I started talking with people who wanted to know more about ticks, I enjoyed it. It’s like extension work with out being an extension entomologist.”
Cortinas’ current work focuses primarily on ticks, but he has his eye on another issue (and one near his veterinary heart) that may be making a significant comeback within the industry — fleas.
“My expertise is ticks, so that’s where I’m going to start most of my initial research,” Cortinas says. “But I do talk to my veterinary students about fleas and how they take care of them on dogs.
Eventually, Cortinas’ work on disease vector pests are going to bring him more renown within the industry. — FHA
Ricky Diggs
Vice President; Alexandria Pest Services
Alexandria, Virginia www.alexandriapestservice.com
Diggs realized he wanted to make pest management his career as he watched his father build his pest management firm from the ground up.
Though Diggs had ridden with his father, who was working as a sales representative for another company, he’d never seen pest management as a long-term career. Then, through hard work, long hours and an overwhelming commitment to customer service, his father built his own company from scratch.
“It was then that I realized this could be something huge,” Digg says. “I looked up to him for the effort he put in to making this business into something. That’s when I realized I wanted to do this for a living.”
As many in the industry have done, Diggs started off as a termite technician and, as he likes to say, a “go-fer” for his father and other technicians.
As a vice president, Diggs continues to fulfill multiple duties to the company. Sometimes he fills in for a technician who needs a day off. Other days he’s working the marketing department. He also works to build the company’s sales. But in the end, Diggs never loses sight of the company’s ultimate goal.
“There’s nothing in the world more enjoyable than creating a satisfied customer,” Diggs says, echoing his father’s long-standing commitment to customer service. “To me, that’s the greatest joy — to see a happy client.”
Whatever he does in the future, however, he is committed to growing the business his father.
“I don’t ever want to become one of those guys who sits on the board who is not involved in the day-to-day aspects of the business,” Diggs says. — FHA
Matt Nixon*
CEO; American Pest Management
Burtonsville, Maryland www.americanpest.net
Nixon continues his strong involvement throughout the industry on state, local and national levels. His work on diversifying American Pest Management’s business model has increased its residential business from around $200,000 to nearly $3 million last year.
“I was extremely lucky that we didn’t have much residential business to start with, and we were in the middle of a market that was ready for it,” Nixon says. “I also had the luxury of studying what other people had done and picking up their best practices before we launched our own.”
Nixon’s involvement in the industry — and his willingness to help other PMPs the way others have helped him — is well-known. His continued participation in organizations, such as Associated Pest Services and the NPMA’s LDG, show a long-term commitment to helping the industry build its professionalism.
But he’s not interested in standing still — he attends monthly meetings of the international business group Vistage, where CEOs from different industries meet to discuss business challenges and ways deal with them.
“I find that an incredibly valuable experience,” Nixon says. “It’s really helped build my confidence in my own abilities, and I’ve made some great contacts.”
Nixon also recently spearheaded American’s entrance into Copesan, an alliance of pest management companies that operate as one organization to help land national accounts. He first joined the group as a backup partner, but rapidly impressed its members with the work he and his company did. Last year, the organization invited American Pest Management to get on the track to become full partners. — FHA
Emily Thomas*
President; Arrow Exterminators
Atlanta, Georgia www.arrowexterminators.com
When Thomas returned from a summer excavating antiquities at an archeological dig in Mexico, she told her father Joe she’d had a lot of time to think about what she wanted to do with her future.
Joe, who had never pushed his daughter to join pest management but secretly hoped she’d want to help him build the business his parents had founded, grinned from ear-to-ear.
“I didn’t realize I wanted to make it a career at that point, but it got into my blood,” Thomas says. “It’s definitely what I want to do now — it’s quickly become my passion.”
Thomas’ high-energy and enthusiasm has made up for lost time. She attended her first NPMA PestWorld 2005 as a member in Nashville and started off by attending the PWIPM meeting. She’s now the chairwoman of that organization and participates actively in local, state and national associations.
In four short years, Thomas moved her way up through the ranks doing everything from information technology to marketing to commercial sales and everything in between.
“I’ve done just about everything, and I’m so glad I did,” Thomas says. “I learned more about the business out in the field than I could have sitting in an office somewhere.”
Thomas, who made the list last year as the COO, became president of the company shortly thereafter. Under her leadership, the company jumped from the 10th largest pest management firm in the country to the sixth largest — and the second-largest privately owned pest management firm in the country. — FHA
Editor’s Note:
The asterisks (*) next to certain names denotes the second year that PMP has been included on our Worth Watching List.
Do you know a young PMP the rest of the industry should keep its eyes on as a future leader?
Whether they come from industry companies, manufacturers or academia, we want to know about them. Nominate them for next year’s list by visiting localhost/mypmp.net/worthwatching.
You can reach Andorka at 216-706-3735 and at fandorka@questex.com.
5 years later Green Earth is a thriving pest control business in NYC and in the process of setting up a branch in Los Angeles.
We appreciate the update, Josh, and wish you every success on opening your West Coast branch! — The Eds.