2018 Speakers

Seth Mattison

Seth Mattison is an Internationally renowned expert and author on workforce trends, generational dynamics, and business strategy. As Co-Founder and Chief Movement Officer of Luminate Labs, Seth advises many of the world’s leading brand and organizations on the key shifts happening around talent management, change and innovation, leadership, and the future of work.

His ideas have been featured in such publications as The Wall St. Journal, Forbes, The Huffington Post, and The Globe and Mail and was recently named to the Editors’ Picks for Speakers to Watch in 2017.

For the past decade Seth has shared his insights with thousands of business leaders around the world and has received accolades from many of the worlds best brands including: MasterCard, Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft, Kraft Foods, AT&T, PepsiCo, GE Energy, Cisco, State Farm, Merrill Lynch, Dow, and Disney.

Chris Voss

Chris Voss is CEO of the Black Swan Group and author of the national best-seller Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, which was named one of the seven best books on negotiation. A 24-year veteran of the FBI, Chris retired as the lead international kidnapping negotiator. Drawing on his experience in high-stakes negotiations, his company specializes in solving business communication problems using hostage negotiation solutions. Their negotiation methodology focuses on discovering the “Black Swans,” small pieces of information that have a huge effect on an outcome. Chris and his team have helped companies secure and close better deals, save money, and solve internal communication problems.

Chris has been featured in TIME, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Inc., Fast Company, Fortune, The Washington Post, SUCCESS Magazine, Squawk Box, CNN, ABC News and more.

Steve Ashkin

Currently Steve serves as President of The Ashkin Group, Executive Director of the Green Cleaning Network, co-founder of Green Cleaning University and CEO of Sustainability Dashboard Tools, LLC – all of which play important roles in his efforts to move the global cleaning industry from green to sustainable.

Steve has been working in the cleaning industry since 1981 where he has held key technical and management positions for leading commercial and consumer products companies, and has worked on the issue of “green” cleaning since 1990. He has extensive experience working throughout the entire supply chain from leading product manufactures to product distributors to service providers to building owners and facility managers. In addition, Steve also works extensively with market influencers such as environmental and health advocates, labor unions, media, governments, policy-makers, standard setters and others which have given him deep insights into how the marketplace can be used to drive health and environmental improvements.

Among Steve’s many awards include recognition from the National Performance Review for his help launching the President’s Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program, an Excellence Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency for his work to protect children from environmental threats, and the Green Building Advocate of the Year from the Leonardo Academy for bringing Green Cleaning to LEED-EB.

Dorothy Askew

Dorothy Askew is CEO of The Askew Group, LLC, a BSC. She is an alumna of the University of Maryland College Park with degrees in Economics and Journalism.  She is United States Air Force veteran and member of the elite USAF group, Tops In Blue. Mrs. Askew has been in the building services industry for eleven years. It is her passion and a company core value stressed throughout the company to exemplify the building services industry professionals as the honorable hardworking professionals that help keep America and the world working in clean and comfortable environments. Mrs. Askew is considered as a leading professional in the specialty area of new construction detail final clean. She has been an entrepreneur for over 20 years and received the Inside Business Entrepreneur of Excellence honor in 2016. She is a board member for Women in Defenses Greater HR, a Goldman Sachs 10,000 business owner, and a LEAD alumni chamber leadership program. Mrs. Askew is married with two children and one granddaughter.

Shane Campbell

Shane has been with Varsity for 20 years. Shane has a masters degree in human resources, training and development and is a certified PHR and SHRM-CP.

Chase Carlson

Scaling a company is the goal but few are able to do it. Chase Carlson landed in Washington DC 10 years ago and hasn’t looked back. Chase is President of Pioneer, a family owned-boutique BSC founded in 1993 serving the Mid-Atlantic Region. Chase and his team have scaled the company from $6M in annual revenues to just under $30M while retaining a 97% retention. The fundamentals to such great success lies behind 4 core concepts: people, strategy, execution & cash!

Marc Collings

Marc Collings is Varsity’s Senior Vice President of Marketing. He oversees the company’s growth, branding, positioning, customer support and analytics. In this role, he has positioned the company as a customer solutions leader for lowering cost and improving quality. He also led the company-wide rebranding and strategically positioned the company as a sustainability leader, serving on a committee for the EPA, obtaining the Ashkin Group award for sustainable leadership, leading Varsity’s CIMS Green Building certification with honors, and developing Varsity’s S.H.A.P.E. sustainability strategy, which improves service results along five dimensions: Safety, Health, Asset Preservation, Productivity and the Environment.

Daniel Daggett, PhD

Dr. Daniel Daggett has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Wisconsin, where he received a fellowship from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Berman and Blieir Award for his research. Dr. Daggett started his career as a toxicologist with the Wisconsin Department of Health, where he was responsible for developing environmental regulations and protecting public health. Currently, he is the Executive Director of Sustainability at Diversey where he is responsible developing and implementing sustainability strategies across the business. Dr. Daggett has published widely and is a frequent speaker on a variety of topics such as indoor air quality, toxicology, sustainability, life cycle assessment, carbon footprint, and product safety.

Nathalie Doobin

Mrs. Doobin owns several companies including Harvard Services Group, a WBENC certified national janitorial service provider.  In addition to being featured in Forbes Magazines’ Most Powerful Women issue, she was recognized as “Enterprising Women of the Year” by Enterprising Women Magazine and is featured in the book Inspirational Heroes.  Her volunteer work includes being a Board Member for BSCAI and the Hygieia Network, and an Advisory Board Member for Enterprising Women and Contracting Profits Magazines.  She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Hautes Etudes Commerciales, an Executive MBA, is a member of YPO and is a licensed Private Detective.

Pat Fragomeni

Pat Fragomeni, CBSE, is a Sr. Consultant with Concepts4 with 28 years of industry experience in consulting and delivery of services in healthcare, education, Class A offices, industrial,  Parenteral Drug & Semi-Conductor manufacturing clean rooms. 

Passionate about systemic delivery of services delivered by competently trained personnel, Pat has committed most of his time focused on Team Cleaning and the development of operational leadership dedicated to improving the industry.

Barnett Gershen, MBA

Barnett Gershen is the owner and CEO of Gershen Consulting, LLC., and specializes in business advisory and investing services. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Gershen was Chief Executive Officer and co-owner of Associated Building Services (ABS). He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army and completed his bachelor's degree at Texas A&M University and his MBA at The University of Texas. During his career, he completed Owner/President/Management certification at Harvard University. Barnett is a founding member of Crime Stoppers and has served on the downtown and metro YMCA boards. He is a recipient of the Lyla Mae Padon Character Award and the Hero of the Year Award from the YMCA. This year, he was honored by his industry peers with the 2015 Presidents Award from BSCAI.

Paul Greenland, CBSE

Paul is the VP of Sales and Marketing for GMI Janitorial and Security based in San Diego, CA and also the managing partner of "Only Best Practices Consulting" (OBP) specializing in helping facilities services companies grow organically through best operational and sales practices. Paul is a  past president of BSCAI and currently serves on the Board of the World Federation of Building Service Contractors.
Prior to selling his family business, Paul had been instrumental is growing the business to over $ 40,000,000. After selling the family business in 2017, Paul went on to oversee the sales and marketing efforts in the US for a $ 2,500,000,000 worldwide facilities service company. Paul also serves on the Board of Directors of The World Federation of BSC and has been the Key Note Speaker at the 2015 and 2018 Clean China Forum in Beijing, China.

Steven Harper, MBA

Steven Harper has over 30 years of experience leveraging technology to solve business problems for Fortune 500 companies, such as FedEx, Disney, Capital One and Boeing. His corporate background in Technology, Operations and Finance has been leveraged in the janitorial industry to execute better and make more money.

Mark Herbick

Mark Herbick is the Founder and CEO of Pursant, LLC. Pursant is an Investment Bank that helps middle market business owners optimize the value of their businesses, manage strategic transactions and orchestrate liquidity events. Prior to founding Pursant, Mark was a serial entrepreneur and buyer/seller of businesses, having bought, sold and operated over a dozen companies of his own, including companies in the janitorial sector and advised on countless strategic transactions in numerous sectors. His businesses employed as few as a dozen people and as many as 1,400. He grew his companies through acquisitions, strategic divestitures of divisions and managed organic growth. The businesses operated at local, regional and national levels. During his time as an operator, Herbick found that to best grow enterprise value, it was necessary to become proficient at optimizing company performance and executing strategic transactions.

Troy Hopkins, CBSE

Troy Hopkins started his Area Development of Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services in 2002, and travels to his 23 franchise locations, motivating and coaching the individual owners to achieve success in the janitorial industry. Troy coaches and speaks to a wide variety of companies, from motivating front-line employees in manufacturing to inspiriting executive management teams to achieve their goals. Troy is also the author of The Business Remodel- Transform Your Business to Love it (again) or List it, and his newest release, Making Cents of a Dirty Business – Survive and Succeed in Commercial Cleaning.

Olon Hyde, CBSE

Director of Operations, Office Pride Commercial Cleaning

Olon Hyde, CBSE serves as the Director of Operations for Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services. Office Pride has franchises in 32 states across the country. Working with this broad base of franchisees, and having been a franchise owner himself, has given Olon the experience to know what works and what doesn't when it comes to hiring, training and motivating employees.

Collie King

Louisville native Collie King has amassed over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience in IT development, business management, and organizational leadership. His role in Kwantek is to provide an overall vision for the company, while challenging, simplifying, and streamlining operations to help the company achieve its goals.

Tom Kruse

Tom Kruse literally grew up in the commercial cleaning world, working side by side with his father on a cleaning route when he was in grade school. He officially entered the workforce in 1984 as a cleaner at Scioto Services in Columbus, OH. Over the next 15 years Tom took on management and administrative roles and earned his degree at Ohio State University. His passion for the business culminated with his purchase of Scioto Services in 1999.

Tom’s first deal was selling his firm to Marsden Holding, LLC in 2005. His operational acumen and successful divesture uniquely qualified him to lead Marsden’s mergers and acquisitions effort. Since 2005, Tom has brought over 30 companies to the Marsden family.

His extensive involvement in the business community includes many charitable causes, a Business Leader of the Year recognition, and his recent ascension to the Board President of the Building Service Contractors Association International.

Jason Lee

Jason Lee is the Director of Sustainability and Process Optimization at Harvard Maintenance, Inc. where he spearheads the organizations third party certification standards and continuous improvement initiatives. Throughout his career he has participated on over 300 sustainability project teams resulting in environmental conservation, operational efficiencies, and improved health and wellness. One of his greatest honors was to be named the recipient of the 2017 BSCAI Cleaning for Health award presented by ProTeam on behalf of Harvard's Service Excellence cleaning systems that are performed daily.

Eric Luke, CPA, CBSE

Eric T Luke, CPA, CBSE, President of Varsity Facility Services and BSCAI Treasurer. Eric has worked for Varsity for 30 years. Prior to that Eric worked for Arthur Andersen in small business consulting. 

Jeff Merrihew

Jeff Merrihew is a Sr. Consultant with Concepts4, who has worked in the industry for over 25 years. During that time, he has had the opportunity to provide service to a range of facility types including public school districts, colleges & universities, offices, industrial environments, healthcare and high tech. Bringing a strong technical background with experience in carpet care, hard surface care, and disaster recovery, Jeff holds IICRC certifications and earned his RBSM in 1997. Additionally, Jeff is an NSC instructor and has a depth of IT experience including CAD/CAM, system administration & software development.

Jacob Monty, JD

For over two decades, Jake Monty has successfully practiced at the intersection of immigration, labor, and employment laws. Jake founded Monty & Ramirez, LLP to offer an integrated approach to dealing with Hispanic workforces. He and his bilingual partners address all the critical aspects of employer advocacy, from immigration to union matters, workplace safety, and employment disputes. Jake’s practice extends nationwide. He has held presidential and gubernatorial appointments to the University of Houston Board of Regents, the Texas Private Security Board, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump, the Border Environment Cooperation Commission, and the North American Development Bank. Jake is also active in civic and professional leadership.

Parker Moore, CBSE

Parker joined IH Services, a South Carolina cleaning and facilities management company in 1987 as a Salesman, and later advanced to his current position of Vice President of Contract Compliance. After joining BSCAI in the late ’90s, Parker attained his CBSE Certification in 2003 and has been active in the organization as a Board Member, Committee Member and presenter at Peer-to-Peer education sessions and Roundtable discussions. As a committee member, Parker has taken an active role in promoting the CBSE, RBSM and RBSP Certification Programs. Parker is a graduate of Clemson University.

Tim Murch, CBSE

Tim Murch, CBSE, President and CEO of 4M Building Solutions was founded in 1978 and is one of the largest janitorial and related facilities services providers in the Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States. Tim has led 4M Building Solutions to become a multi-regional company, operating in 14 states, with over 3,000 Team Members. His vision and passion for the industry is demonstrated by driving 4M Building Solutions’ strategic vision to be the absolute best facilities services partner in the industry. As a Green Cleaning pioneer Tim was an original Green Seal Group Stakeholder that developed the Green Seal standard for cleaning services.

Pasha Ostby, SPHR, SCP-SHRM, HCS, CPP, Six Sigma

Pasha Ostby has more than 15 years of strategic human resources business experience with an emphasis in influencing strategy that links people, process and technology. By improving leadership effectiveness and relationships at all levels of the organization, she has helped create a record of developing high-performing teams in dynamic environments. Ostby is recognized for her broad HR subject-matter expertise, exceptional quality, and value-added thought leadership. Ostby earned a Masters of Arts in International Business and Human Resources from Doane College and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Nebraska Omaha. She has also received certification as a Senior Human Resources Professional (SPHR) from the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI) and Senior Certified Professional from Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), a Human Capital Strategist (HCS) from the Human Capital Institute, Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) from the American Payroll Association (APA) and Six Sigma Black Belt Certified from CFQ International. Pasha Ostby joined TEAM Software in August 2013 and works to maintain TEAM as an employer-of-choice in the software industry along with providing Human Resources subject matter expertise to our clients.

Dave Prewitt, CBSE

Dave has been working in the industry for McLemore Building Maintenance for twelve years. His first position was in operations as their Houston Branch Manager. When you figured out how hard everyone works in Operations, he managed to shift over to sales. During his tenure in his current position, company wide revenues have grown by approximately 70 percent. Mr. Prewitt has his CBSE and continues to learn in this every changing industry. While you may see Dave in hotels and airports throughout the Southwest, he calls Klein Texas his home and is glad to welcome so many of you to Texas at this time.

Richard Rodriguez

Richard has over 20 years’ experience in the custodial services industry.  He is responsible for operations management of McLemore’s $30+ million client portfolio.  He has demonstrated ability to build and implement innovative service delivery.  Richard has strong analytical and tactical planning skills, is customer-centric and retention-driven. Through Richard’s efforts the South Texas market’s revenue has more than tripled and customer retention levels topped 97%.  His philosophy of ‘consistent customer care’ is the basis of his leadership strategy.  He is a member of BSCAI, and has attended continuing education classes including Leadership Development, OSHA Compliance Standards including Hazardous Materials training, etc. and is also a HHPC Day Certified Expert.

John Schwepker, MBA

John Schwepker is the Vice President of Sales for Abstrakt Marketing group, one of the fastest growing marketing companies in the country. He has a diverse background of working for Fortune 500 companies, privately held companies as well as being an entrepreneur. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing at Southeast Missouri State University as well as an MBA from the University of Phoenix and has over two decades of Sales and Sales Management experience. John has been instrumental in helping Abstrakt grow by over 286% in the three years he has been there.