After managing the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association (NJLCA) for the past seven years, industry veteran Jody Shilan, MLA, has decided to step down from his position as the organization’s executive director to focus on his work as a landscaping business consultant, speaker and writer.
Jody ShilanShilan, whose column regularly appears in Total Landscape Care, says he began his career the same way many of his peers in the green industry started theirs – with a push mower and a can of gas.
Today, he says, you’re more likely to find him speaking at a landscape industry trade show about how to charge design fees; training landscape design/build contractors to use his “Ultimate Design/Build Sales Process,” or sitting in a Starbucks writing a “Trade Secret” column for his membership website, FromDesign2Build.com.
“I am extremely proud of the accomplishments that I have achieved as both a past president of the NJLCA and its executive director,” Shilan said. “I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to manage such a wonderful organization for so long.
“Working for the association, I have had the opportunity to meet some incredible people and also give back to an industry that I have dedicated my life to. I am proud to say that during my tenure, the NJLCA has become a more professional, more social and politically active association, growing in both size and stature, along with a very solid balance sheet.”
Shilan said requests for private consulting, public speaking and sales webinars “have grown so significantly that I knew I had to refocus my efforts and make some decisions.”
NJLCA marked its 50th anniversary in 2016.
Dr. Bruce Clarke, director of the Rutgers Center for Turfgrass Science, credited Shilan for nurturing the relationship between the university and NJLCA.
“Under Jody’s guidance, the NJLCA/Rutgers Partnership has grown tremendously,” Clarke said, “resulting in increases in student scholarships and support for projects from the NJLCA Board that will greatly benefit the turfgrass industry.”
Tom Canete, a past president of NJLCA, said Shilan was also responsible for bringing him back to the organization after a hiatus of nearly a decade.
“The main reason that I rejoined the NJLCA … was because I saw all of the changes Jody was making to the association,” Canete said. “Under his watch, membership meeting attendance grew significantly and meetings became very social and highly productive.”
Shilan says he looks forward to seeing NJLCA members at upcoming industry events.
