Garden
Industry
Institutional
Investment
Program
Team
· Jack
Hesse
· Alicia
Cleary
John R. Hesse, Founder and President
Jack Hesse is an experienced horticultural entrepreneur and executive with over 30 years' experience financing, acquiring, and managing companies in broad segments of the garden products industry. These companies include leading suppliers of nursery, ornamental plants and bulbs, agricultural technology and plant innovation companies, as well as leading vegetable and flowering seed companies.
Jack launched his career as the Founder and then served as the President of American Garden Products (AGP), the largest commercial grower of nursery plants from 1970-1981. Jack built the company into the largest US horticultural enterprise at the time, with $51 million in revenues, earning investors superior returns. AGP was acquired in 1981 by AMFAC after 10 years as a publicly owned business with its common stock traded on the American Stock Exchange.
Following AGP, Jack founded Plant Resources Ventures Funds I and II which were managed by Private Equity Managers. Of the nine investments in agricultural technology and plant innovations, the partnerships brought six to the public markets. In 1994, he founded the Garden Companies, acquiring the leading US Vegetable and Flowering Seed Company, with revenues of $32 million.
In 1997, Jack founded International Garden Products (IGP), which he grew into a $170 million business serving over 5,000 retail stores across the U.S. IGP was the result of the acquisition and integration of Iseli Nursery (Boring, OR), Skagit Gardens (Mount Vernon, WA) Briggs Nursery (Olympia, WA), Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower Inc. (Upland, CA), Ridge Manor Nurseries (Madison, OH), Langeveld International (Lakewood, NJ), Thompson & Morgan (Ipswich, England), Vandenberg Bulb Co. (Chester, NY), and Little Valley Wholesale Nursery (Brighton, CO).
He has served on the board of industry leaders such as Idexx Labs, and his earlier activities in the non-profit sector included serving as Trustee and Executive Committee Member of the Massachusetts Horticulture Society, and Member of The Visiting Committee of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and in various activities at Yale University.
Jack holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
. . .
Alicia H. Cleary, Managing Director
Alicia H. Cleary has a wide range of experiences across domestic and international fields including environmental, media and non-profit. At Spring Garden, Alicia oversees the planning, development and execution of Spring Garden’s business initiatives in horticulture and agricultural based activities related to the environmental sustainable and renewable energy sectors. She strategically supports these initiatives by building its internal capacity and partnerships with industry experts to develop comprehensive business and financial strategies for investing in the next generation of environmental-based companies. Her responsibilities include management of a team of research and due diligence experts and related projects.
Prior to SGCA, she developed and promoted market-based business initiatives, attracting international investment and establishing public and private sector collaborative partners to support sustainable businesses in Uganda and Brazil. While living abroad, Ms. Cleary co-founded Philanthropy Counts, a Hong Kong based company which provided advisory and development services to non-profit institutions on fundraising strategies, donor and board development. She also managed marketing efforts for Southeast Asia’s largest satellite television company (STAR TV), including research activities for the company’s expansion into India.
Alicia received her BA from Connecticut College and Masters in Regional Planning from Cornell University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Fishers Island Conservancy and on the Advisory Council and Advancement Committee of The Trustees of Reservations.
Alicia lives with her husband and two children in Concord, Massachusetts.
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