PlantAmerica NewsRoom

PlantAmerica, Inc., an expanding green industry technology firm, has named Michael J. Deale chief executive officer and chief technology officer. Deale comes to PlantAmerica with an extensive background in supply chain management, the Internet, and high technology, high growth companies. He spent nine years in Silicon Valley, and developed substantial expertise in supply chain management at Red Pepper Software, where he was Director of Technology, and employee number three (he directed the implementation of supply chain management programs for 3-Com, Cisco, Sun, Coors, Bosch & Lomb, and other Fortune 500 companies). He then served as vice president, customer advocacy of Arbor Software, a publicly-traded software company, and later as chief operating officer of Power Navigator, an Internet-based company created to help utilities and power marketers buy, sell, and manage electric transmission in the deregulated electric utility industry. Prior to joining PlantAmerica, Deale was CEO and president of Buyline.net, an Internet-based vertical portal developer for trade and professional associations, and is currently entrepreneur-in-residence at The Next Generation Fund, a private equity fund based in Fairfax, Virginia. Deale holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science from UVA and George Mason University, respectively. “Michael’s proven expertise in supply chain management, business, and the Internet, will help PlantAmerica quickly realize our goal of helping green industry businesses take advantage of new technologies including the Internet,” said PlantAmerica Chairman Rick Webel. “He has proven his ability to understand and solve extraordinarily complex supply chain challenges, which certainly exist in today’s green industry, and has helped build several successful businesses, all of which make him a great leader for the PlantAmerica team,” he added. PlantAmerica focuses on helping the lawn and landscape industry work more effectively, boost sales, and increase customer loyalty. It was co-founded in 1995 by Rick Webel, managing partner of Innocenti and Webel – Landscape Architects & Strategic Planners, and Dr. Michael Dirr, horticulture professor at the University of Georgia and author of over 300 publications, including the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. The company has become a key resource for horticulture, nursery and landscape professionals, by providing unique business tools, including exclusive CD-based plant references covering the works of Dirr and Dr. Allan Armitage.