Peter Sortwell Joins Tree Care Industry Association Board of Directors

HAYWARD, Calif., March 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Peter Sortwell President & CEO, of Arborwell Inc. of Hayward, California, was sworn in as a director on the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) Board of Directors during an induction ceremony at TCIA's Winter Management Conference in February 2011.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110322/SF69094)

Arborwell, a TCIA member since 1997, serves all of California, offering tree pruning, removal, preservation, installation, plant health services and arborist consultations to contractors, commercial property managers, golf courses, municipalities and estates. Accredited since 2006, Arborwell has 120 employees and gross annual revenues of about $15 million.

An ISA Certified Arborist, Sortwell is a graduate of the University of Maine with a degree in Plants & Soils Sciences.  He started his career at S&S Tree and Landscape, a Sortwell family owned company in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. He later moved west, becoming a district manager of the San Francisco territory for Davey Tree, then general manager for Arbor Care, Division of Environmental Care, in San Jose, California, before becoming vice president, Tree Maintenance Division for Valley Crest Companies in Calabasas, California. He purchased Arborguard Inc. in 2001, changing the name to Arborwell Inc.

In addition to currently serving on TCIA's Voice for Trees PAC, he is a member of the San Mateo Rotary Club; the Students Rising Above program, which invests in low-income, first generation college students who have demonstrated a commitment to educational achievement and strength of character in overcoming tremendous odds of poverty, homelessness and neglect; and JobTrain, which offers vocational training, after-school classes, GED preparation, ESL, internships and more to youths aged 14-21.

Sortwell was a member of the then National Arborist Association, now TCIA, prior to his founding Arborwell, beginning in 1993. He served as a trustee of the National Arborist Foundation 1992-1995, and on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 1997, and received NAA's President's Award in 1997 for his work in developing the former Excellence in Arboriculture awards program.

He brings to the table his experience of having worked both in a small, family-owned business and the large corporate environment. He's also built one of the fastest growing business in the country, having been named to the Inc. 5000 for the past four years, and San Francisco Business Times fast 100 five years running. All of this will help him provide direction to the association, he says.

"I would like to build on the marketing of Accreditation, and begin the process of establishing industry metrics and measurements for standards of learning and education for running a tree company," says Sortwell.  "I want to give back and to help our industry better itself."

SOURCE Arborwell