The Care of Trees’ President Elected to National Safety Council Board

Scott Jamieson, president and CEO of The Care of Trees, has been elected to the board of directors of the National Safety Council. He is the first and only tree care professional to be elected to the council’s board. Drawing on his safety experience, Jamieson will be part of the board’s development and strategic planning committee. He will serve a two-year term.

It was his passion for “leading with safety” and The Care of Trees’ commitment to creating an increasingly safer workplace that led Jamieson to the National Safety Council board. Under his leadership, The Care of Trees became the first tree care company in the nation to join the ranks of NASA, DaimlerChrysler, Johnson & Johnson and others in conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the company’s safety leadership practices. Through the Strategic Safety Leadership program of Behavioral Science Technology, Inc., the company underwent a rigorous assessment, involving everyone from ground crews to senior managers.

“Company culture is probably the biggest influence on worker safety,” says Jamieson. “You can have a safety plan, but if the culture doesn’t embrace it, it won’t have much impact.” 

The Care of Trees invests 2.5 percent of its annual revenues to training, including programs focused on safety leadership. “We have a vision of safety at The Care of Trees: ‘No one in our family gets hurt,’ says Jamieson. “It’s what we strive for.”

Jamieson joined The Care of Trees in 1989 as an arborist, was named president in 1998, and added the title of CEO in 2003. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in urban forestry from Purdue University and Michigan State University, respectively. He has also earned an MBA from DePaul University, Chicago, and completed leadership studies at Harvard University.

Jamieson is an ISA certified arborist and an instructor at Michigan State University; Purdue University; The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Ill.; and the Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, Ill.  

He was awarded a Lawn & Landscape Magazine Leadership Award last year and received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Purdue University College of Agriculture.