There’s always hard work going on over at Michael Hatcher & Associates, but if you want to get to the heart of the company, follow the laughter.
You’ll find team members joking and calling each other by nicknames like “Santa Claus,” “Sunshine,” and “Junior Juice.”
You’ll wander into celebratory cookouts where top managers man the grill and happily wait on hungry crew members.
You’ll see ice cream trucks roll up and piles of pizzas delivered and goody bags handed out to crew members on holidays, or just because it’s really hot and they work really hard.
And when a phenomenal sales team wraps up a year of impressive sales, there’s a PowerPoint presentation giving each one a nod, Kelly Ogden saying a few words and handing out gift cards, and a lot of laughter.
“When the company wins, our employees win,” says Ogden, General Manager of Commercial Maintenance. “We like to share our successes with our employees. It’s a way to show how important everyone in this company is. It’s a group effort.”
These celebrations bring everybody together, Ogden says.
“A lot of people don’t know what everybody else in the company does,” he says. “This celebration brought all the people together who touch sales, so they get to know what each other contributes.”
Procurement Manager...Director of Business Development...Contract Administrator. Landscape Construction Supervisor...The list goes on.
Here’s the celebratory presentation they enjoyed, including the compliments colleagues shared about each other.
Their nicknames are listed, too. Otherwise nobody would know who we’re talking about.
Lana “Momma Brown” Brown
Human Resources Manager
“Lana led the entire HR and IT department through quarantine and remote working. Major accomplishment.
She’s the glue that holds the company together, and the sounding board for everyone in the company.”
— Trey Ball and Kelly Ogden
Cameron “Cam” Poindexter
Landscape Construction Supervisor
“Cam is relatively new to the supervisor position, but since starting in Commercial Maintenance in 2011 he has climbed his way through multiple roles in Landscape Construction. His biggest sole supervisor jobs this past year were at Legacy 6, The Bakery, and South City 1&2.
Cam has excelled with his confidence in dealing with site superintendents and being able to juggle multiple job sites. We look forward to his continued success as we lean on him for his irrigation and landscape experience, and his ability to keep things light.”
— Jeff Peterman
Steve Tice “87”
Landscape Construction Supervisor
“Steve has one of the longest tenures with the company at over 21 years. He excels at being able to handle challenging hardscapes. He is at his best when he has a difficult paver job, water garden, or block wall installation.
Avenida was his biggest job this past year and it was challenging. Tice was able to handle the largest paver job to date along with difficult drainage and interior courtyard work. Hopefully, he isn’t thinking of retiring anytime soon. His experience is invaluable to our company.”
— Jeff Peterman
Jeff “Buddy” Peterman
General Manager, Landscape Construction
“What can I say about this guy? He takes a tremendous amount of pride in what he does.
He led and developed a TEAM that produced $5.8 million in house and a total of $6.4 million revenue. Come on, MAN!”
— Kelly Ogden
Stephen “Sunshine” Shikle, PLA
Senior Landscape Architect/Sales
“One of the hardest working guys I know. It makes no difference what time or day — he will be side by side with you to achieve and exceed the goal.
A multi-talented person that has sold / designed / estimated more than anyone in the department year over year.”
— Kelly Ogden
David “Smiles” Loyd
Senior Designer/ Sales
“The silent guy that always smiles. David was able to double sales from ’19 to ‘20 and finished the year very strong, finishing the year with a combined $950,000 in sales.
The future looks as bright as this mug shot.”
— Kelly Ogden
Ron “Juan” Bobal
Director of C&I Business Development
“He’s always trying to separate himself from the herd and he is doing a great job of that. Ron has a pace of movement like no other.
He’s responsible for dragging in more than $3.2 million, but with the help of his partner in crime, Stephen Shikle, they closed $3.2 as a duo.”
— Kelly Ogden
Alex “Snow Boss” Moore
Senior Account Manager CM
“Alex has held a lot of different positions with the company but has found his spot. He sold $353,000 in enhancements in 2020 and was instrumental in helping Jim with estimating the millions of dollars in Commercial Maintenance proposals.
I look forward to working with you in 2021 and many more years to come.”
— Kelly Ogden
Sherry “Scary” Vowell
CM/RM Contract Administrator
“‘I don’t know what to do with this?’ is her favorite question to ask me. I don’t know what I would do without Sherry. She was able to help re-budget the entire CM budgets in 2020 that have not been touched in years.
We are going to roll in 2021 with her confidence and take-charge attitude.”
— Kelly Ogden
Josh “Jr. Juice” Wilder
Operations Manager, Master Lawn
“Josh played a huge role in Mid-South Turf and Ornamental production integration. He met with hundreds of customers to solve lawn issues or service problems.
He did an outstanding job managing 900 new sales into our service routes. Josh is the best Christmas light installer on this side of the Mississippi.”
— Kelly Ogden
Sharon “BunzBunz” Sullivan
Customer Service, Master Lawn
“Sharon played a huge part in the 1,100-customer Mid-South Turf and Ornamental integration.
In peak season she answered more than 900 phone calls a month. Sharon and a colleague combined for more than 10,000 calls.”
— Kelly Ogden
Kelly “Quite the Poet” Ogden
General Manager Commercial Maintenance
“If you can deal with him every day — and get over his loving delivery of jabs he throws your way each day — Kelly is the most reliable and selfless person in DeSoto County and half of Shelby.
Congratulations for delivering $10.8 million in 2020 vs $9.5 million in 2019. Well done, Kelly. Thank you.”
— Russ Sneed
“The” Russ Sneed
Chief Operations Officer
“Russ recently joined our team and has quickly established the working relationships that will support us in our future success. He often challenges all of us to ‘Think Bigger than We can Imagine.’
With his innovative approach and experience he has promptly focused our objectives and offered a new leadership style with the deliberate intention of keeping our core value of ‘Setting The Standard.’”
— Michael Hatcher
From Michael Hatcher: “As we move into the excitement of 2021 and what the future potential offers our company, we are building a growth culture in our company that will take us to new opportunities yet to be realized.”
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