Davey Tree Flipbooks

109 108 Growth Rings wilderness of California. Greg Ina, executive vice president of the Davey Institute and Employee Development, also started with Davey as a data collector, in 1995, and worked on the PG&E inventory as a crew member. Ina recalled in a 2017 interview that the challenges posed by the project were well worth the rewards. e work created lasting bonds between the employees, who lived, traveled and recreated together for its dura- tion. "It cemented my long-term commitment to the Davey Company," Ina said. "ose of us who worked on the project developed a rapport and comradery amongst ourselves and with the client that continues today. And many of the team members who started there are now essential components of Davey's management team. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity." Ina and Repenning were quickly identified through the broader leadership and succession planning efforts as potential future leaders of the company. ey would remain within the resource group to shore up its internal leadership structure as the service line continued to grow and expand. Other soon-to-be leaders within the resource group joined Davey around the same time. Ken Joehlin, who was promoted to vice president and general manager of environmental consulting and business development in 2016, joined the resource group in 1996. Karen Wise, promoted to vice president, environmental consulting, in 2019, started with the resource group in 1997 as a wetlands scientist. Jack McCabe, who was promoted to vice president and general manager, Davey Resource Group utility vegetation management, in 2018, joined Davey a few years later in 1999 and was followed by Ray Hannebique, who became vice president of operations, Midwest region, Eastern Utility services, in 2019 and joined the resource group in 2001. Joehlin recalled in a 2019 interview that a big success of the resource group came when it started providing services such as vegetation management around utility infrastructure, essentially creating a fire break and clearing vegetation away from utility poles. is and other similar services provided more stable, long-term revenue compared with the temporary nature of tree inventory projects. e resource group also managed to identify and partner with clients in the East, thus taking services born in the West and expanding them to new markets. Prior to the California work, DRG had a handful of employees focusing on urban forestry – primarily conducting street tree inventories. For the PG&E inventory, the need to incorporate an understanding of utility infrastructure and electrical equipment prompted the development of a geographic information systems group. By the time the inventory ended in 1998, the resource group had become a crucial element of the Davey Company. McCabe started as a supervisor in 1999 managing about 12 employees who were overseeing utility line clearance work planning for PG&E. Davey employees were inspecting pole clearance to make sure vegetation management had been performed properly and according to state regulations. McCabe recalled in a 2019 interview that the work started on the PG&E Los Padres division and quickly expanded to several other divisions. "We had much more of a start-up mentality at that time," McCabe said. "We flew under the radar a little bit. at hasn't changed. What also hasn't changed is that we were focused on the clients and making the resource group a great place to work. We've always worked to challenge the status quo and make things better." Even though the resource group had found early successes, there were significant challenges for this new team of managers now wading into the waters of the utility line clearance market. Earlier interactions with utility clients and managers from Davey's utility operations, especially in the training and consulting areas, were often not viewed as successful and were even argued as potentially damaging to the company. Management personalities occasionally clashed, and each service line wanted their own independence. Clients and – for bidding purposes – competitors also wanted to see a clear separation of control between the services. "It was the strength, leadership and proven results from Brent, Greg, Ken, and Jack that persevered and earned this group the respect and friendship of Davey's utility, residential and commercial operations," Warnke recalled in a 2019 interview. "ey were each given more responsibilities and they continued to raise their level of performance. Ultimately, it was the tenacity and foresight of Roger Funk and other key managers reporting to him that we resurrected our fourth service line. e potential was enormous, and the company had the capabilities and will to capitalize on this growth opportunity." Another early example of the resource group's technical and technological capa- bilities came in the spring of 1995. A pilot project developed by the resource group sought to enhance the vegetation management program of West Kootenay Power and Light Company, today FortisBC, in British Columbia. e project used a global positioning system (GPS) to pinpoint the exact location of each utility pole and any adjacent hazard trees. e pole inventory was conducted on handheld computers using TreeKeeper. One of the resource group's first sizeable municipal inventories came in Denver. A handful of Davey employees worked six days a week for three months, cataloguing 1,000 trees a day and inventorying all the public trees along boulevards and highway medians and in city parks. A sizeable job, it further established the resource group's capabilities as both a service provider and revenue generator. Momentum continued for DRG with the completion of a street tree inventory for the city of Los Angeles. According to the 1997 Davey annual report, the project was yet another significant job that "helped launch Davey Resource Group." Soon, a new opportunity beside tree inventory work presented itself with a small Ohio municipal utility, which called for a wood pole inventory to identify its infrastructure assets – an inventory DRG completed in 1998. DRG started to apply its capabilities to wood pole inspections in Louisiana around the same time. ese projects were early Chapter 6 e ability to provide a broad spectrum of services, adaptability and a culture of growth are among the reasons why total annual revenue and profits have trended up over the lifetime of the Davey Resource Group. Brent Repenning became general manager of DRG in 2010. Karen Wise joined Davey as a wetland scientist in 1997, when DRG developed its environmental consulting services. In 2019 she was promoted to vice president, environmental consulting. Ken Christensen, senior biologist, DRG, conducts a wetlands survey in 2002. Greg Ina spent time early in his career as a crew member on the PG&E inventory project in the mid-1990s. He was promoted to executive vice president of the Davey Institute and Employee Development in 2017. Brent Repenning, center, spent time early in his Davey career as a crew member on the PG&E inventory project in the mid-1990s. He was promoted to executive vice president of U.S. Utility and DRG in 2017. DRG Historical Revenue Year Revenue $200 $180 $160 $140 $120 $100 $80 $60 $40 $20 $0 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

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