Lawn & Landscape honors top leaders through annual awards

The Lawn & Landscape Leadership Awards, sponsored by Syngenta, are given annually to those in the green industry who have demonstrated the strongest leadership skills in the world of landscaping and lawn care.

This year's winners are:

Benny Abrigado; Abrigado trains and mentors team members at Performance Landscapes, working to give them the type of rewarding career and life he has earned in Hawaii.

Greg Jolley; Jolley is passing his enthusiasm for the green industry to the next generation of employees, and he is loving every minute of it.

Miles Kuperus, Jr; Kuperus, Jr. stepped up as an industry leader as a way of repaying those who helped him early in his career.

Lawn & Landscape also presents its Emerging Leader Award, an award given to a landscaping professional who is setting the tone for the younger generation. This year the award was presented to Andy Kurth of Weed Man. Kurth helped build a fast-growing Weed Man business, and now he’s focused on empowering his cast to own the type of career that has been so rewarding for him.

“Syngenta values and respects the leaders of our industry who inspire and shape the future of where we live, work, & play,” said Stephanie Schwenke, turf market manager for Syngenta. “We also know the recipients of the Lawn & Landscape Leadership Awards never stop innovating, and neither do we. I want to on congratulate the Lawn & Landscape leadership class of 2019.”

The event took place Oct. 16 at the Kentucky Science Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

“Our leadership and emerging leader award winners constantly strive to succeed in both their personal and professional lives” said Brian Horn, editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine. “The passion to be prosperous on both fronts is a prime example of why this industry is filled with the hardest-working people."