PGMS Announces New Leadership

BALTIMORE, Md. – The Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) has elected and installed new executive leaders for the coming year.
Todd Cochran, assistant county park superintendent of Bergen County Department of Parks, Hackensack, N.J., is the new volunteer president of PGMS. He was chosen during the society’s annual business meeting, held in conjunction with the Green Industry Exposition in St. Louis, Mo.

As the 82nd grounds management professional to hold the office, Cochran succeeds Milton “Dusty” Hallman, of the Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater, Fla., as the chief elected officer of the 92-year-old green industry organization.

PGMS members also elected Chris Fay of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as their president-elect.

Ellen Newell, CGM, landscape manager at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, was elected vice president, and Michael Mongon of Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, Conn. was selected as treasurer.

Complementing the officers of the society, PGMS is led by a team of volunteers who serve on its board of directors. Elected to the board this year were: South Central Regional Director Monica Higgins of Shadow Glen Golf Club in Linwood, Kan., and North West Regional Director John Van Etten of Hoffman Development Corp. in Albany, N.Y.

Because of recent redistricting of the society's regions, Van Etten of New York will serve one three-year term. Also elected to the board, as a director-at-large, is Andy Nicholson of Nigro & Boyd Landscape in Kansas City, Mo.