Build a Stronger Bench
Advanced Leadership Program
Selective. Senior. Strategic.
Senior leaders already running the green industry will decide what it becomes next.
The HRI Leadership Academy is a selective one-year cohort built for horticultural leaders. Owners, presidents, general managers, senior leaders, directors, functional leaders, and identified successors who want to run stronger businesses, contribute more effectively where they live and work, and help the industry flourish.
Managed by the Horticultural Research Institute and funded by AmericanHort, the HRI Leadership Academy exists because a healthy industry depends on people who can lead their businesses, contribute to their communities, and help the industry flourish.
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Leadership is Learned
The HRI Leadership Academy prepares participants for the challenges ahead. The class comes away stronger at leading people and culture, influencing stakeholders, navigating industry and market change, and collaborating across the supply chain. They leave with a trusted national network of peers from every segment of the industry and a clearer view of how to make an impact beyond their own company.
Matt Foertmeyer
Foertmeyer & Sons Greenhouse
Expand Leadership Capacity
Who the Program is For
This is a selective leadership experience for senior leaders who already influence or own a meaningful piece of the P&L and are accountable for results. It is not a first leadership course. The year is structured so participants leave stronger in three places: the business they run, the community they live and work in, and the industry they help lead.
Owners, presidents, general managers, directors, senior leaders, functional leaders, and identified successors.
“The HRI Leadership Academy improved my leadership ability, industry knowledge, business acumen, and industry relationships. The relationships created during the class by common goals and shared experiences allow for a better understanding of the education material and beyond. The education was excellent, the homework was thoughtful, and the speakers’ mastery of the subjects was unmistakable.”
Eric McKie
Green Oak, MS
The Program
What the Program Delivers
Four in-person sessions on strategy and competitive positioning, people leadership, financial fluency, advocacy, industry stewardship, the value chain, negotiation, and influence.
Between sessions, participants reinforce the work, apply it in their companies, attend virtual sessions, and complete a team LEAD Project developing practical recommendations for a substantive industry-level issue. The work concludes with those recommendations delivered to HRI and AmericanHort leadership at Cultivate.
The result is a leader better prepared to contribute more effectively in and beyond their own company.
Expanding Leadership Capacity
Why it Matters
Participants leave with stronger command of strategy, people, numbers, and commercial judgment, plus a trusted national peer network of leaders who carry similar responsibility across the industry.
Companies gain a more effective senior leader who can lead teams and culture, represent the business, and collaborate beyond organizational boundaries.
The industry gains leaders prepared to contribute to its long-term strength.
A healthy industry depends on people who can lead their businesses, contribute to their communities, and help the industry flourish. This program develops those people.
“The HRI Leadership Academy was a game changer for me from the very start. The homework assignments for the first session were perfectly aligned with our class on business structure. It was a wakeup call to me that there is still an opportunity for our business to focus on guiding principles, mission, vision, and values despite operating an established 85-year-old nursery.”
Christine Fortman
Berridge Nurseries, AZ
Apply
Class of 2028 applications close February 5. Selection is competitive and class size is limited.
Managed by the Horticultural Research Institute and funded by AmericanHort.
Get the Brochure
To download the information brochure, please complete this form.