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Meet The Royal Lawn & Landscape Staff

The Lansing Area's Finest Lawn Care Professionals

Royal has up to 30 Associates working in the field of operations and service. Our team is committed to the highest quality service in the Mid-Michigan area. Our office staff is the backbone to what we do and are here to assist our customers.

Contact Royal at 517-694-LAWN or e-mail us to see what we can do for you.

David L. Thurston, Jr. - President and Founder

Since a young boy, Dave has always had an interest in two things: people and the green industry. As a child raised in Battle Creek, Michigan; his father was in the lawn maintenance business and that allowed the first opportunity for Dave to gain hands-on experience with running equipment while also learning the art of customer service.

After graduating from high school in 1985, Dave moved to Lansing to go to work with a friend who owned a lawn company that was rapidly growing and in need of help. In 1990 that company went out of business. After a few weeks of trying to figure out what to do, he and his wife Marni decided to start their own lawn maintenance company. Since that time Royal has added landscaping and also irrigation installation and service. Dave continued his education to earn a professional degree in the green industry.

Dave and Marni were married in 1987 and have five children. Dave hopes some day they will all work with him at Royal. Dave's goals for the future are to continue to maintain a high level of service and retain customers for extended contracts while gaining referrals from Royal's customers.

To Contact Dave - Email

Bill Burch, CIC (Certified Irrigation Contractor)
Irrigation Sales & Design

Bill joined Royal Lawn & Landscape in the spring of 2002 with several years experience in irrigation service and installation. This is the same time frame that Royal Lawn & Landscape began offering Irrigation services to its customers.

By the spring of 2005 Bill had not only aceived his Certified Irrigation Contractor Certification through the Irrigation Association, but had also excepted the position of the Irrigation Division Manager for Royal Lawn & Landscape.

Bill is not only responsible for the sales and design of new systems, meeting with first time service customers and maintaining established accounts, he is also responsible for the entire divisions success.

He works with his staff to create the scheduling and dispatching of install crews and service techs, but he also works with the office staff and the scheduling of ongoing training/education meetings making every effort in offering Royal's customer's service at the highest level. With the help of his team they also over see inventory and equipment/vehicle maintenance.

Together, this division has over 40 years of experience.

Bill works very hard to make sure the Irrigation Division at Royal does their job well and makes sure an irrigated lawn is receiving 100% coverage.

Bill is indeed an asset to Royal Lawn & Landscape and will work very hard to guarantee that you as a Royal customer are totally satisfied with the service you receive.

To Contact Bill - Email

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Neil White - Project Specialist

Neil joined the team at Royal Lawn & Landscape in the spring of 2004 after spending 27 years owning and managing his own trucking company and logging 3.5 million miles behind the wheel.

Neil's experience with operations management and customer service has been a true asset to Royal as well as Royal's customers.

Neil wears many hats and assists in all areas of customer service, cold call contacts, represents Royal at many networking groups as well as coordinating many behind the scenes projects at Royal.

Neil also manages the winter snow/ice operations for Royal.

To Contact Neil - Email

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Jerre Thompson, CMN (Certified Michigan Nurseryman)
Landscape Design and Sales

Jerre is the newest member to the Royal team. Jerre first became aquainted with the lawn maintenance and landscaping industry as a student in High School.

In 1991 Jerre began his professional career in the Green Industry by achieving his Certified Michigan Nurseryman certification thru the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association.

Jerre has experience in maintenance, landscaping, landscape lighting, grading/seeding, patio pavers, block and boulder walls as well as water features.

Jerre also holds an applicators license for lawn fertilization and bed weed control.

Jerre's well rounded experience allows his customers to quickly gain confidence in his ability and trust him to oversee the job they are expecting done.

Jerre's ability to communicate with a customer and understand their vision for their landscape allows him to use his talent in designing a landscape plan that is second to none and bring their vision to life.

To Contact Jerre - Email

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Jason Kime - Lawn Maintenance Operations Manager

Jason Kime has been employed at Royal Lawn & Landscape since it's beginning in 1990. His duties include management of the Lawn Maintenance Division, which includes, scheduling of work loads, conducting safety meetings and overseeing the maintenance of equipment and vehicles in this division. This division employs dozens of men, uses some 40 pieces of equipment every day and maintains over 300 acres each week.

Jason has two assistance, Eric Thurston and Pat Eichholtz (included in photo from left to right - Eric, Pat & Jason.) that each over see their own crews and assist Jason in all of the work load that has been described.

Jason's commitment and dedication to his profession and this company has been a key to the success of Royal Lawn & Landscape.

To contact Jason call Royal Lawn & Landscape at 517 - 694 - LAWN.

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Brendon Budd - Maintenance Operations Specialist

Brendon started with Royal in 2001. Brendon began working in the Lawn Maintenance Division, transferring to and assisting with the development of our Maintenance Specialties Division.

Brendon oversees the production of maintenance, which consists of shrub and tree pruning, mulching of beds, planting and maintenance of annual flowers and perennials. He also oversees smaller landscape jobs for contracted customers.

Brendon is very personable, yet serious about what he does and is sure to deliver a job well done.

To contact Brendon call Royal Lawn & Landscape at 517 - 694 - LAWN.

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