I had the opportunity to sit down with Lionel van der Walt, the new president and CEO of AmericanHort, in advance of the Farwest Show and ask him some questions before his visit to Farwest and Oregon.
Click to watch a video of this interview.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your professional career.
A: My background started off with many years in the association field at a global level, where I worked for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) which represented most of the airlines around the globe — British Airways, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines. [It covered] anything that touched on the airline sector, the passenger side of the business as well as the cargo side.
From there, I transitioned to another association … IBEC, the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants. [It] represents building enclosure consultants, which are mainly architects and engineers. [I] transitioned from there to the startup side, where I was working in startups and logistics.
Working at AmericanHort takes me a bit back to my roots, where my passion is serving broader issues through an association, but also deeper roots. Growing up in South Africa, where some of my family members had farms, I spent a lot of time growing up on those farms. I love the land and my mom and my stepfather and my stepbrother, they still manage large farms in South Africa.
So really, that deeper love for the land, and then combining it with association work is where I am today.
Q: Why did the CEO position at AmericanHort appeal to you?
A: Well, all of those above reasons. Number one was … the love of the land. I mean, this is an incredible industry — horticulture. Who wouldn’t want to work in an industry where you’re adding so much value in people’s lives? If you think about … the end product that we do every single life celebration about, there’s some form of horticulture that touches that. Cooling of cities … purification of air … clearing out and filtering water systems. All of those sort of benefits, which are so important for society, comes from this industry.
I was at Cultivate, my first Cultivate, a month or so back, and incredibly, just to see the camaraderie amongst the people that were there. It was more like a family reunion than a traditional show. And I’m guessing I’m going to see the same thing at Farwest.
Q: What are some of the most interesting things you’ve learned so far about the nursery industry?
A: One of the very interesting things I’ve learned so far is … that many of these businesses are generational family businesses, which is very different [from] many other industries that I’ve been in. You’ve got multi[ple] generations that have built these businesses up, and starting many times with a guy in a truck … and then growing it onto these very successful large corporations.
These businesses are squeezed in terms of input costs, labor costs. And then also … if you look at regulation when it gets to … pest control, insecticides, and all of that…, how is that managed in a responsible manner?
I’m seeing a lot of technology coming into the industry. The larger companies are really at the forefront of that — robotics, AI, automation — but obviously we want to see how can we get those benefits to some of the smaller to mid-sized businesses out there.
Q: We’re doing this interview ahead of the Farwest show, and we’re glad you’re coming to Oregon, and you’re going to experience the show for yourself, and hopefully visit some of our nurseries while you’re here. But what are you looking forward visiting the most in Oregon?
A: First and foremost, meeting the people and getting to know the region and the businesses in the region. That’s my prime objective. I’m also getting the opportunity to meet with some other industry experts, like Charlie Hall. Seed Your Future, which is another group that I’m really passionate about…. I think they do an incredible, important job, and they’ve got a very important role in making this industry an industry that’s really at the forefront of both educators and the next generation. And then, obviously, the OAN is really important also. Getting to work with the regional associations, strengthening those ties and collaboration is another important aspect for me.
Q: What do you think are the most important challenges facing us at the federal level right now?
A: Well, everything I’ve heard in my travels so far, and [since] I … joined AmericanHort is labor, labor, labor. That seems to be the number one issue for almost everybody out there. I think there’s two key areas right now that we need to really pay attention to.
Number one is the Farm Bill. So we’re getting to the close of a window that we can actually impact and get the Farm Bill out. We’ve really made good progress on the Hill from the House side where it’s past committee there and we’ve got a really, really forward thinking, really strong bill that’s come out on their side. On the Senate side, we’re stuck in markup. I would like to urge everybody [to] reach out to your senators. You might not think it will have an impact, but it really does.
The other aspect at the federal level is the Securing Agriculture Workforce Act, which is another very, very important piece that we need to get through. That’s basically modernizing the H-2A program, which impacts labor once again, making it more accessible, bringing in more reliable and consistent wage criteria …, and then also the process for applying and using these programs, streamlining that and making it a lot easier for everybody.
And then the last piece I would mention also is federal relief is really important for everybody across the horticulture industry. There’s a bill that’s going through right now … it’s a 12 billion package. From what I understand, about 5 billion of that … is being targeted for the specialty crops … and we really need to push to get that through.
If you go onto our website, AmericanHort.org/Advocacy/VoterVoice, [makes] it really easy … to you reach out to the right people on the hill so we can get them moving on this.
Q: What are some of the most important lessons you picked up from your experience in the other industries that you worked for? And how do these inform your short term and your long term goals at AmericanHort?
A; One of the things I mentioned and I talked about in my opening at Cultivate was this African term that I learned in South Africa called Ubuntu. [It] basically fundamentally means that no one is an island. If we’re going to do things, the best way to do that is to be a collective. Because ultimately, everything that … we achieve is not done just by one person, or one organization, or one company. There’s numerous different stakeholders working together to get that great, good impact. And that’s why the relationship between AmericanHort and OAN is important. So that, for me, is a really important lesson.
Also, making sure that we’re continuously checking in with our membership and with regions within our membership to understand what are the burning issues and areas where they need support. As an association, we exist to serve our members and add value for their businesses, so we need to challenge ourselves to always make sure that that is happening, and we obviously put mechanisms in place, like traveling to Farwest and speaking with stakeholders there. We’ve got our connector groups, where we bring in representatives from across the industry, and where they’re giving us strategic advice about what they’re seeing in the industry. All those sort of mechanisms are really, really important, so that we stay on topic.
The last thing … was really a great lesson [from startups]. In a startup, you don’t have a lot of resources, so you really need to be challenging yourself all the time. Where is value being added? Are you doing the right things? Are you focused on the right key areas that can add value?
Right now we’re also just mapping out everything that we’re doing and making sure that it ties in and adds towards the bigger goals that have been set by our board.
Q: how does AmericanHort take into account the regional differences OF your members’ needs and the challenges versus the national picture? And where do you feel does Oregon fit in?
A: Oregon is obviously really, really important. It’s one of the strongholds in the nursery sector in the United States, not only internally within Oregon, but obviously there’s a lot being shipped out from Oregon to other states within the U.S.
I think that at the end of the day, it’s really just interacting and getting close and meeting with stakeholders locally. But then also ensuring that there’s these strong ties between the national association, like AmericanHort, and then the regional associations, like OAN.
One example is … in 2024…there was an outbreak [of Phytophthora austrocedri] that you had in the region there, and … the different stakeholders came together, you know, Jeff Stone, Michael from our side at HRI … working with USDA, making sure that we had funds very quickly made available to do some research to really understand what the issue is and then bring in sensible regulation.
So all of those sort of things are happening already. I think from my perspective as the new president and CEO at AmericanHort, I’m just going to build on the good work and the relationships that have been established and see how do we strengthen that out. We’ve got the Connector Program within AmericanHort, which is basically, as I mentioned previously, the program where we get members and volunteers coming in and helping us to really gain insights into the industry. It’s basically an advisory service that they provide and really help us with insights, what’s happening, keeping our fingers. on the pulse of things within the industry. We’re going to see how do we revitalize that and really ensure that we’re getting the greatest value. from those volunteers to ensure that we’re on track and doing the right things in the right way.
Q: The Oregon Association of Nurseries and its members have had a long association with AmericanHort, and we’ve strongly supported AmericanHort in the past with Leigh Geschwill serving as president of HRI and Tom Fessler is now on your board of directors, and the contributions at the Oregon Nursery Fund have finally met their goal of $500,000. Both of the organizations have a strong relationship lobbying for common issues at the federal level. But from AmericanHort’s perspective, how can the two organizations strengthen this relationship and increase their national and state influence?
A: Well, one of the things is obviously for me, I’m the new guy in town. I really want to come and speak with Jeff Stone to really understand his perspective. I’m spending a lot of time listening to what people are telling me and what they’re seeing. I’ve got a lot of thoughts around how we can strengthen collaboration, but I think it will be jumping to conclusions … if I was just coming [in and] randomly shooting from the hip. Trying to say, these are the ways that we can improve things.
There’s already this really strong relationship there. We’re seeing strong support from the members within the region. The HRI Leadership Academy, which is building out that next group of leaders within the industry, [has had] a number of people from the region that have been participating. I think Amanda Steele has been one of the latest ones and I think she’s going to become really influential obviously at a state level for the industry.
But all of those … aspects are already there. How do we strengthen that? I think those are the discussions I need to be having with Jeff and the rest of the local stakeholders. Once we’ve had those discussions, we can really determine what’s meaningful and how do we improve on that. But everybody will have my 100% commitment that you will see me in Oregon. You will see my team there. They’re already attending the local events. We’ve got the nursery tour that’s coming up at the end of September. I will once again also be at that tour. So really, boots on the ground. Listening, learning, and then seeing how do we improve our collaboration.