AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIGHTVIEW’S ANDREW MASTERMAN


W


hen two of the nation’s largest landscape compa- nies, Brickman and ValleyCrest, announced in 2014 that they would merge, it was big news in the landscape industry. Both venerable companies with long histories, Brickman was founded in 1939 and Valley Crest in 1949. At the time of the merger, the two firms had more than 20,000 employees and $2 billion in revenue, and Valley Crest was on Forbes list of the top-500 privately held companies.


The new company rebranded as BrightView, and Andrew Masterman took the helm as president and CEO in November 2016, following in the footsteps of the first CEO Andrew Kerin and interim CEO Pat Velasco. Mergers are never an easy process, so we talked with Masterman to see how things are going three years after the merger was an- nounced.


Q: YOU RECENTLY JOINED BRIGHTVIEW AS CEO. WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE JOB?


A: There is a great deal about BrightView that appealed to me. I knew I would be joining a team made up of some of landscaping’s most skilled and committed professionals. I knew the company was the industry leader and that it does great work across multiple service lines—design, development, maintenance, golf, tree care and sports turf. The breadth of BrightView’s operations was also very appealing to me.


18 THE LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONAL > JULY/AUGUST 2017


Q: WHAT MAKES THE LANDSCAPE INDUSTRY DIFFERENT OR UNIQUE VERSUS OTHER INDUSTRIES YOU HAVE WORKED IN? A: It is a fascinating and complex business. Something that I find gratifying is the relationship between us and our clients and how that partnership can help deliver value to the customers. If you look at one of our client categories, healthcare, you can see how important landscapes are to delivering value and helping achieve good patient outcomes. We help these facilities de- sign, build and maintain landscapes that create a safe environment that can aid in the healing process. That’s a dimension to this business that I hadn’t really thought about before coming to work here. It is certainly grati-


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