Independent Director — PE-Backed Commercial Landscape and Urban Horticulture Services | Water Stewardship, Contract Quality and Buy-and-Build Governance

Enterprise context

The company designs, installs and maintains landscaped environments for institutional and commercial customers. Delivery combines horticultural knowledge, irrigation, civil works, nursery sourcing, chemicals, equipment, seasonal labour and long-term maintenance. Assets are living systems: survival, establishment and appearance depend on soil, water, species selection, weather, care and customer-controlled conditions.

The business is expanding organically and through acquisitions. Project revenue can look attractive before plant replacement, establishment obligations, delayed site access, unapproved variations and maintenance mobilisation are fully recognised. Recurring maintenance contracts can also be uneconomic when water, labour, waste removal, seasonal replacement or service frequencies are underestimated. The Board seeks an Independent Director who can govern these lifecycle obligations while supporting a disciplined buy-and-build strategy.

Board mandate

The Director will provide independent oversight of water stewardship, species and nursery provenance, chemical use, worker safety, project accounting, survival guarantees, contract economics, equipment, customer conduct, acquisition diligence and integration. The appointee must ensure that environmental claims are supported by measurable outcomes rather than visual presentation or planting counts.

The role requires site-level curiosity. Board information should distinguish installed plants from surviving, established landscapes; irrigation capacity from responsible water use; and signed maintenance revenue from contracts capable of funding safe, competent delivery.

Strategic and governance responsibilities

1. Govern design suitability. Review climate, soil, water, light, maintenance capability, root space, biodiversity, user safety and lifecycle cost. Aesthetics should not override site conditions or sustainable maintenance.

2. Protect planting provenance. Establish nursery approval, species identity, plant health, pest status, source legality, receipt quality and traceability. Substitutions require qualified review and customer agreement where material.

3. Define establishment and survival obligations. Clarify measurement periods, exclusions, replacement responsibility, customer dependencies and evidence. Revenue and provisions should reflect the true warranty burden.

4. Strengthen water stewardship. Measure source, entitlement, quality, irrigation efficiency, leakage, runoff and consumption by site. Water-saving claims should use credible baselines and include establishment needs.

5. Govern chemical use. Review approved products, storage, issue, dose, application conditions, protective equipment, public notification, disposal and non-chemical alternatives.

6. Protect workforce safety and dignity. Examine heat stress, machinery, work at height, traffic exposure, manual handling, chemicals, sanitation, wages, contractor practices and grievance access.

7. Make project economics complete. Include design revision, mobilisation, site delay, plant loss, irrigation changes, civil rework, customer retention, replacement and working capital.

8. Make maintenance economics complete. Include route time, crew composition, seasonal intensity, equipment, water responsibility, waste, replacements, reporting and service-credit exposure.

9. Control variation and acceptance. Ensure scope changes, customer instructions, measurements, completion, snagging and handover are documented. Unapproved work should not accumulate as optimistic receivables.

10. Govern equipment and fleet. Review utilisation, custody, maintenance, fuel, operator competence, leasing, theft and capital proposals. Equipment growth should follow route and project density.

11. Substantiate sustainability claims. Define canopy, survival, biodiversity, water, waste and carbon boundaries. Do not equate planted quantity with durable ecological outcome.

12. Create acquisition discipline. Assess customer contracts, survival liabilities, workforce compliance, chemical inventory, nursery arrangements, equipment, claims, receivables and owner dependence.

13. Integrate controls before synergies. Align safety, payroll, chemical custody, customer records, project estimates, procurement and incident escalation early. Revenue synergies should not precede minimum control standards.

14. Protect balance-sheet resilience. Stress-test weather-related replacement, customer failure, delayed projects, water restriction, labour shortage, acquisition underperformance and debt service.

Decisions expected at Board level

The Director will contribute to acquisitions, long-duration maintenance contracts, large development projects, nurseries, irrigation technology, fleet and equipment, water partnerships, regional expansion, leverage and strategic exit readiness.

Each material project should disclose site readiness, design responsibility, water basis, planting provenance, survival obligations, seasonal risk, variation process, full working capital and exit conditions. Acquisition value should be adjusted for unrecorded replacement, labour, environmental and customer liabilities.

Audit, safety and sustainability agenda

The Board dashboard should report project estimate movements; survival and replacement; maintenance service compliance; water intensity and exceptions; chemical use; safety incidents; workforce attrition; customer complaints; variations; receivables; contract contribution; equipment utilisation; acquisition integration; environmental claims; audit findings; and covenant headroom.

Internal audit should combine site observation, plant and material tracing, water records, chemical counts, payroll-to-workforce testing, contract reperformance and customer confirmation. A serious chemical, worker-safety, water or integrity concern must be independently escalatable.

Candidate profile

Candidates should have at least 22 years of senior leadership across environmental services, horticulture, facilities management, construction services, water, workforce-intensive operations, audit, finance or private equity portfolio governance. Experience with distributed contracts, project-plus-maintenance models, acquisitions or field safety will be valuable.

Suitable candidates may include former CEOs, COOs, CFOs, sustainability leaders, safety executives, service-network heads, operating partners or Audit Committee Chairs. The candidate should be comfortable testing environmental claims against physical evidence and visiting operating sites across seasons.

Eligibility, independence and conflicts

Active inclusion in the IICA Independent Directors Databank is mandatory. The candidate must remain independent of the financial sponsor, founders, management and significant counterparties. Interests involving property developers, facility owners, nurseries, water providers, chemical or equipment suppliers, contractors, lenders, investors or acquisition targets must be disclosed.

The role may not be used to source contracts, land, plants, irrigation, equipment, finance or consulting work for connected parties.

First 100-day priorities

• Visit development and maintenance sites at different lifecycle stages.
• Review project provisions, survival obligations, water exceptions and serious safety events.
• Reconstruct full economics for representative project and maintenance contracts.
• Examine chemical custody, workforce practices and equipment controls.
• Assess recent acquisitions against a common operating-control baseline.
• Recommend Board thresholds for contract acceptance, water, safety, acquisition and leverage risk.

First-year outcomes

Success should mean realistic project estimates, visible survival obligations, responsible water and chemical governance, safer frontline delivery, profitable maintenance contracts and acquisitions integrated to common standards. The company should grow living assets and enterprise value without disguising lifecycle costs.