ILCA Awards & Honors —
ILCA’s 2019 Person of the Year Joe Hobson by Nina Koziol
Joe Hobson is a quiet,
thoughtful guy. If you don’t know him, you should. He’s president and chief operating officer of Midwest Trading in Maple Park, Illinois. And, he was recently chosen as ILCA’s Person of the Year. When ILCA President José Garcia called to give him the good news, Hobson said, “I was speechless. It’s quite humbling and quite an honor.” Hobson’s 23 years of professional leadership experience in the horticulture industry followed more than 30 years in landscape management, design and maintenance. He’s served on ILCA’s board and is a past-president. “Joe has worked for some of the largest member companies within ILCA, but he always tried to walk in the work boots of the small, independent contractor,” said Scott Grams, ILCA’s executive director. “Joe realized there was a silent majority of members who needed more from the ILCA than golf outings and glass plaques. He committed himself to understanding what the average member needed and challenged the Board and staff to address those needs above all others.”
An outdoorsman who loved hunting and fishing, he debated pursuing a career in forestry or wildlife management, but ultimately decided on landscaping. “If I went into one of the other two, I might well end up in the boonies, which would be fine, but I had a close, tight family and a lot of friends. I decided landscaping would give me more versatility and would allow me to balance my work and family.” Career Choices A friend who was studying landscape architecture gave him advice. “I concluded that I wanted to do landscaping, so I switched to the University of MissouriColumbia.” He graduated in 1986 with a degree in horticulture with an emphasis on landscape design. After graduation, Hobson had an internship at Powell Farms, an 800-acre site near Kansas City. “The owners joined with the University of Missouri to figure out what to do with the farm.” He worked there for two years becoming the interim director and performing master planning. “Working with the master planners was interesting, but it’s a one-time shot and done, even though it takes many years to implement the plan.” And, the planning involved a great deal of paperwork and approvals that made projects cumbersome and drawn out. “I like the system where we go get things done—I decided to do something different.” One of the master planners gave Hobson job leads. “I interviewed with the Brickman Group who took a chance and hired me. That’s what really got me into the landscape world.” That was in 1988 and he stayed at the Long Grove, Illinois, location for five years before transferring to Atlanta for three years where he handled the firm’s commercial landscape maintenance. “In the design-build world, each project is a “wow” factor. In maintenance, it’s much more repetitive. I found my passion improving properties and developing people.”
Early On Raised on a farm in southwestern Missouri, Hobson appreciates the importance of hard work. “I did everything from mending fences and working cattle to hauling a lot of hay and cutting a lot of firewood. I had a never-ending appetite,” he said. At 17, he worked after school and on weekends for Gladys and Brown Thomas, an elderly couple with a greenhouse and big garden. “I’d cut the grass, water the greenhouse, dig potatoes, attend to customers or deliver plants— whatever needed to be done. They were super good people to be around and I was fortunate.” Hobson knew he wanted to go to college. “Out of the 15 grandkids on my mom’s side, very few headed in that direction and I was the first to graduate.” He started at Southwest Missouri State University where he took an Introduction to Horticulture class as a freshman. “I didn’t have a game plan, but during that class a landscape segment caught my attention.” 10 The Landscape Contractor January 2020