THE NALPEXPERIENCE
Meet Bruce Wilson, NALP’s 2021 Lifetime Leadership Award Winner
By Jill Odom
THIS YEAR’S LIFETIME LEADERSHIP AWARD WINNER HAS TRULY been in the industry for his entire lifetime. Like many others, Bruce Wilson first started out by mowing grass as a kid. “Ironically, my father made me quit mowing lawns and get a job because he thought that it would be good for me to know what it’s like to work for somebody and have to go to work at a certain time and everything,” Wilson says.
He did keep one account who let him care for his greenhouses in the winter. When Wilson graduated from high school, he didn’t know it, but his
Wilson says Marsh was a true
client had put him in for a scholar- ship with New York Garden Club. He attended Farmingdale State College and that cemented his career in the landscape industry. Some of Wilson’s major influences as he came up through the industry include Joe Marsh, founder of Green Valley Landscaping, and Dr. Joe Trick- ett, head of Santa Clara University’s Business School.
professional and after Wilson got all the crews out in the morning, they’d sit down and discuss how current events affected their business. “Joe was a real mentor to me,” Wilson says. “He taught me how to think like a business person, and taught me some of the principles of running a profes- sional business and business etiquette.” Wilson met Trickett when he came to visit the company because a student was writing his thesis on the businsess. They hit it off immediately. “He taught me really how to think
about people, and how to lead people by helping them,” Wilson says. “He told me to think of yourself as an enabler. If you enable other people to improve their lives and be better, that’s the key to really having motivated people. Because they will want to work for you because you’re helping them.” Eventually, Marsh sold his com- pany to ValleyCrest and it became the maintenance division known as Environmental Care. When Marsh retired, Wilson was surprised when they announced he would take Marsh’s place. He was the youngest kid on the block at the time. Wilson stayed with ValleyCrest for
30 years, becoming president of Val- leyCrest Landscape Maintenance and vice president of its parent corpora- tion ValleyCrest Companies. Because
“As their business gets bigger, the nature of what they do has to change. They have to become a leader. They have to become good at selecting personnel, developing personnel, managing finances and some of the owners just never get out of that ‘I want to be a landscaper’ mode.” - Bruce Wilson
National Association of Landscape Professionals 23
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