Meet the landscape gardeners and horticulturalists behind the quality work...

Chris is focused on the long term. What began with a Landscape Diploma grew into the business that he and Colin started over 27 years ago, and has now become one of Australia's leading providers of horticulture services and grounds maintenance management solutions. In the meantime, Chris has consistently exposed himself to innovation and inspiration in order to develop his managerial abilities and enhance the company's operations.

Personal

Chris has an active home life and enjoys the challenge of a good mountain bike trail – so much so that he's often training for an endurance event. He's is married to his high school sweetheart and is the very proud father of two girls.

Professional

Chris is focused on the long term. What began with a Landscape Diploma grew into the business that he and Colin started in 1991, and has now become one of Australia's leading providers of horticulture services and grounds maintenance management solutions. In the meantime, Chris has consistently exposed himself to innovation and inspiration in order to develop his managerial abilities and enhance the company's operations. He has undertaken diplomas in business management, and been involved with numerous organisations both here and around the world.

The garden landscaping industry has been Chris's passion for the past 27 years – and it continues to be so as he leads the company into the future. His guidance and commitment have directly led to the great team we have at Skyline, and his strategic vision has ensured we remain the industry's benchmark for quality garden landscaping services.

Colin is driven first and foremost by the desire to improve the quality of commercial landscaping and horticulture in Australia. In the process, he wants to make Skyline the country's premier landscape company. Continual improvement is at the forefront of both our business strategy and his own professional development.

With landscaping in his blood, Colin has been involved in the industry since he was a young teenager.

Personal

Colin approaches his home life and working life with equal passion and vigour, and likes nothing better than facing and beating a challenge! To relax, the very proud husband and father of two beautiful children enjoys plenty of water sport and most physical activities.

Professional

Colin is driven first and foremost by the desire to improve the quality of commercial landscaping and horticulture in Australia. In the process, he wants to make Skyline the country's premier landscape company. Continual improvement is at the forefront of both our business strategy and his own professional development.

With commercial landscaping in his blood, Colin has been involved in the industry since he was a young teenager. Together with Chris, he started Skyline in 1991, and he continues to be hands-on in all aspects of the company. Over the last 27 years they've assembled the industry's best and brightest to provide effective, tailored landscaping services to their clients.

Colin's expertise comes from decades spent learning the industry. He's spent extensive time with leading garden landscaping corporations around the world, and he continues to consult to industry organisations and government departments on guidelines and policy, workmanship reporting methods, rectification and implementation planning.

Colin's leadership provides a nurturing environment where people are encouraged to grow and reach their potential. He's committed to providing real career pathways to his staff members, and believes that people always do their best when they are supported and encouraged.

Under Colin's guidance and leadership, Skyline is always looking for ways to improve the value and delivery of our landscaping services. He's passionate, dedicated and customer-focused – he loves his job. As a result, Skyline is a world-class organisation, and we continue to be a benchmark for quality, cost-effective landscape solutions.

Michael is an exceptional tradesman and manager with more than 20 years' experience in landscape construction and maintenance. Since joining Skyline, Michael has risen through the ranks, from field Team Leader to Client Account Manager, Operations Manager and now New South Wales State Manager, where we utilise his vast field knowledge to organise and lead the Skyline teams. In this role, he's in charge of all scheduling, resourcing, purchasing, training and mentoring, and supervisor support.

Personal

Family, surfing and football. These three things sum up Michael's passions outside work. With two sons growing up quickly and a supportive wife to keep him busy, he works hard to fit in an early morning surf whenever he can.

Professional

Generous and approachable, Michael is quick to share his skills and expertise, mentoring and training his team members to be the best they can be. His knowledge and hands on experience are invaluable to clients, his eye for detail and organisational skills make him an ideal State Manager.

Michael's passion and forward thinking have been integral to Skyline's growth and development as a company. He's one of the key reasons we're at the forefront of the industry.

Qualifications

Certificate III, Horticulture

Advanced Diploma in Business

Advanced Diploma in Management & Leadership

Sean has over 13 years' management and consulting experience in the industry, consulting for local councils, government departments, facility managers and large developers. An invaluable member of the Skyline management team, Sean provides his clients with practical and cost effective outcomes for their horticultural needs.

With a background in land rehabilitation as well as horticulture, Sean's strengths are in optimising horticultural assets.

Personal

Sean is a dedicated family man – his wife and two daughters are paramount in every aspect of his life. However, if there's a cold Bundy rum going and a good game of cricket on, you'll find these playing an important part of Sean's relaxation time.

Professional

Backed by the expertise of Skyline's ground crews, he uses best practice techniques to ensure we achieve desired presentation levels within agreed budgets.

Sean's interest is in achieving the best outcomes for all of his clients and the long-term value of the services Skyline provides. He thrives on relationships that develop over time, on becoming more efficient in our delivery and on doing more with less.

Qualifications

Bachelor, Agricultural Science – University of Queensland

In his 15 years with Skyline, Matt has been key to the company's growth and success. A genuine people-person with natural communication skills, Matt always takes the time to understand a client's needs, ensuring our pricing, methodologies and tailored solutions provide them with the best possible outcomes. As Senior Client Accounts Manager, he's heavily involved in all new contracts and business proposals.

Personal

Whether he's cycling, surfing, fishing or camping, Matt's love of the outdoors is always keeping him active. In addition to mountain bike races and early morning surfs, his family and social life provides him with a much-needed counterpoint to work. He's always making the most of weekends and school holidays with his family.

Professional

As Senior Client Accounts Manager, he's heavily involved in all new contracts and business proposals.

Before joining Skyline, Matt had spent 14 years working in the industry, in both, retail and wholesale horticulture as well as commercial landscape management. His mild demeanour and practical approach allows him to support our other account managers, using his valuable experience and horticultural knowledge to offer advice or a second opinion.

He's helped build depth in the Skyline Management Team and creates a warm, supportive environment for his team to operate in.

Matt's dedication to continuous improvement in our organisation is supported by his commitment to ongoing self-improvement. On top of his industry experience and previous qualifications, he completed a Diploma in Business Management, adding to the list of credentials he offers to our clients.

Skyline's industry-leading reputation and dedication to client satisfaction is undoubtedly the result of having this kind of experience and guidance behind our contracts and submissions.

Qualifications

Diploma, Business Management – Australian Institute of Management

Associate Diploma of Applied Science _ Landscape – Ryde (TAFE)

Certificate in Marketing – Seaforth (TAFE)

Aaron goes above and beyond to ensure that his clients receive the best service possible. He takes great pride in being responsible for many of the high-profile resorts and estates that Skyline cares for, and is focused on building lasting professional relationships.

Starting his career in the indoor plant industry, Aaron has diversified his talents over the last 20 years to include an extensive, hands on understanding of the entire landscape industry.

Personal

Outdoors, Aaron enjoys mountain biking riding and photography, but you would have to say that his passion lies in emerging technology. Landscape gardeners generally don't tend to be the most technologically advanced, but this is an exception when it comes to Aaron. Aaron is definitely up to date on technology and how it can benefit him in the workplace. Now as father to a beautiful son, he may have to create a little extra time for his parenting duties.

Professional

As a Client Account Manager, Aaron takes the time to truly listen to his customers and their stakeholders. He believes communication is the key to success, and he ensures his clients remain informed at every stage of the process.

Aaron's love of the industry and hardworking nature have ensured that his career has continued to grow in tandem with his value to clients. There are many reasons why prestige developments choose to use Skyline for their landscape management needs. Aaron is one such reason.

Qualifications

Advanced Certificate of Urban Horticulture

With a wealth of expertise in landscape maintenance, construction and irrigation, we feel privileged to have Brendan as part of the Skyline team. His extensive industry skills – honed over 20 years – are key to our success, allowing us to deliver a consistently high standard of service to our clients.

Brendan is process minded and has a natural affinity for organisation.

Personal

Brendan's enthusiasm for sport covers a wide spectrum. His focus and determination saw his goal to become a taekwondo black belt come to fruition. His weekends are filled with quality family time and adventures with his wife, two daughters and son.

Professional

With his knowledge, first-hand experience and attention to detail, he guides our staff members and supervisors in every operational aspect of their duties.

Brendan enjoys being the operational backbone of Skyline, supporting our personnel and clients as best he can. His 'can do' attitude is typical of the Skyline management team, leading by example and striving to improve our services across the company.

Qualifications

Diploma, Business Management

Certificate III, Horticulture

Being in the industry for over 25 years has provided Gavin with incredible knowledge and expertise of landscape and grounds management. He currently cares for a number of premier clients across the Melbourne area for industrial and commercial properties, retirement villages, and government-owned sites.

As State Manager for Skyline, Gavin takes a personal interest in each and every Skyline client.

Personal

AFL, camping, Golf, Water skiing, horse racing, wine and good food. It can be hard to fit all of these into one weekend, but if Gavin can find a way, you know he will. He loves his social life – cherishing time spent with friends and enjoying the good things. At home his favourite room in the house is the kitchen, enjoying the challenge of cooking inspiring food for his wife and three sons.

Professional

He performs all the reporting, pricing and recommendations for his clients, generating a tailored solution to meet their immediate and ongoing requirements.

Gavin's love of his work is chiefly apparent in the results on the ground. He supports his clients in every aspect of service delivery, bringing his wealth of industry experience to benefit them and Skyline in general. Our excellent reputation can be directly attributed to the dedication of people like Gavin.

Qualifications

Parks and Gardens

Glen has over 10 years of residential estate experience with Skyline so he’s well placed to understand the attention to detail and quality outcomes that the owners of prestige estates require.

Glen has been working with Skyline for over 10 years. Initially commencing in a role as a Team Leader, his dedication and professionalism has saw him move to a Supervisor, and now an Account Management role.

With experience overseeing and running high profile and prestige residential estates, Glen understands the importance of taking ownership and has a proactive approach to the high level of presentation and ensuring that we provide regular communications and reporting to our client’s.

Effective planning and motivating his teams are Glen’s strengths, complemented by his years of field experience and a strong work ethic. He monitors the long-term health of landscapes, focusing on cost-effective solutions to protect and enhance our clients’ investments.

Qualifications

• Certificate III Horticulture
• White Card
• First Aid
• Height Safety
• 14 Years Industry Experience

Darren's interest in the inner working of sporting team translates directly to people and business. He's driven to understand what it takes to be successful and how to produce high-performing partnerships, and this is what makes him the ideal Business Development Manager at Skyline.

Personal

Darren's passion for sport - all sport - finds him coaching football, watching every sport when possible and tracking details behind the scenes. Darren's has a loving family, which includes his wife, two daughters and his son, with whom he loves to spend time with, especially when they all share their love of sport together.

Professional

Darren begun his career in the UK, where he coordinated interior and exterior landscape management works for a number of years before returning to Australia where he joined the Skyline Team. Originally one of our field-based Team Leaders, Darren's dedication and hard work did not go unnoticed, which lead to his promotion as one of Skyline's Client Account Managers. Darren's blend of landscape management expertise, dedication to both his client's and team members along with his “can do” approach was what saw him grow into his role as Business Development Manager.

Daren has been an integral part of Skyline's growth and success since he started back in 2004. A great communicator and active listener, Darren always takes the time to listen and understand a client's requirements and to ensure that we tailor a program to deliver the best possible outcomes. He's committed to creating and maintaining productive, long-term relationships, constantly looking at ways we can improve our services for existing clients and how we can enhance the experience each client receives.

Qualifications

Diploma in Parks and Gardens

Personal

Joe loves to eagerly follow rugby league all year round and is a diehard Tigers fan. Joe’s other passion is food; he loves cooking all kinds of gastronomical delights and also enjoys getting out to explore as many restaurants and other eateries as he can.

Joe also enjoys the simple things in life like spending time with the family, gardening and doing odd jobs around the house.

Professional

Joe started his Horticultural Career at Concord Golf Club were he completed an apprenticeship. Joe learned the finer details of maintaining highly manicured gardens as well as developing in depth skills in greenkeeping.

Joe spent 11 years supervising the grounds maintenance of a large aged care facility where he built strengths in planning and implementing work programs with an emphasis on setting priorities and to maintain quality standards. As a result Joe won numerous awards in the Local Council Garden Competitions including one of Grand Champion. During this time he also starting developing in management through completing numerous courses and experiencing facility management first hand. Collectively, these skills have seen Joe grow into an “Aged Care Specialist” in regards to garden maintenance with a great knowledge of the aged care industry.

Joe is also experienced in maintaining living native collections while working at the Australian Botanic Gardens – Mount Annan as a Senior Horticulturalist.

As a manager Joe believes highly in a structured approach to achieve quality results in every application he is involved in directly, as well as indirectly. This approach allows him to strive for the best results possible for Skyline’s clients.

Qualifications

• 16 year of Horticultural Experience
• Cert IV in Horticulture – Parks & Gardens
• Diploma of Horticulture – Landscape Design
• Manage Projects (Short Course)
• Certificate IV in Frontline Management
• Diploma of Business

Brett started with Skyline in 2010. His knowledge, dedication and great communication skills saw him take the position of Supervisor at one of Skyline's high profile sites. He flourished in this position which lead him to later becoming a Client Account Manager, where he embraces the everyday challenges and takes pride in achieving great outcomes for all his clients.

Professional

Brett has over eighteen years of industry experience in both Bush Regeneration and Natural Area Maintenance, he has also been involved with the Supervision and Management of Nurseries and Open Space within local Government. After serving his apprenticeship with a smaller Sydney based landscape firm he achieved his Certificate 3 in Parks and Gardens and then furthered his qualification by gaining Certificate 2 in Bush Regeneration.

Brett came to Skyline in 2010 after having worked with Strathfield Council for 10 year’s. Over this time he was involved with many projects and also served as Supervisor and Senior Horticulturalist within Council. In his role at Strathfield he worked on a diverse range of projects where he coordinated and oversaw the work. Some of these projects included: Cooks River Re-vegetation, plus the vegetation management associated with local Iron Bark, Turpentine and Salt Marsh Communities.

Qualifications

• Certificate III Horticulture (Parks & Gardens)
• Certificate II Bush Regeneration
• Working at Heights Certified
• Certificate II Chainsaw Operation
• Chem Cert
• First Aid/CPR
• Traffic Control
• Implement Traffic Management
• 18 Years industry experience

Life-long cricket enthusiast Gordon has been batting for the Queens Cricket Club ever since moving up from Sydney in 2006. When he’s not getting runs on the board, Gordon enjoys riding bikes with his partner on the weekend and catching up with his mates.

Professional

Skyline has relied on Gordon’s leadership for over a decade. He started his career as a brush cutter, and since he joined Skyline, Gordon has been a valued member of the Skyline team

Gordon’s landscaping skills, rapport with workmates and natural leadership skills saw him fast-tracked to a Supervisor role.

Today Gordon is a highly experienced Client Account Manager with a detailed understanding of the landscape industry. He oversees all our major local government contracts, and has some commercial properties throughout south-east Queensland. Gordon is completely open and honest in his communication, providing clients with clearly defined strategies for achieving value-oriented results.

And when it comes to start-up contracts, Gordon’s expertise has been invaluable. He works with our clients to ensure we commence contracts on time with all resourcing in place to deliver the service from day one of the contract. Supported by his leadership, Skyline has transitioned smoothly onto numerous large scale local government contracts, from the Sunshine Coast to Victoria and Western Australia.

Effective planning and motivating his teams are Gordon’s strengths, complemented by his years of field experience and a strong work ethic. He monitors the long-term health of landscapes, focusing on cost-effective solutions to protect and enhance our clients’ investments.

Qualifications

• Certificate III Horticulture
• 13 years industry experience

Matt's enthusiasm for the industry is obvious. He became a fully qualified teacher before relinquishing that career to follow his true passion: horticulture. He doesn't regret it for a second either.

Now Matt is a highly experienced Client Account Manager with a detailed understanding of the landscape industry.

Personal

Tennis, cricket, surfing – these are the activities that Matt somehow manages to fit around the most important thing in his life: his family. Matt and his wife are proud parent to two lovely girls.

Professional

He is completely open and honest in his communication, providing clients with clearly defined strategies for achieving value-oriented results.

Matt gladly shares his expertise and knowledge with clients, believing that professional, knowledgeable service leads to customer loyalty. And it works, too. It's managers like Matt that help ensure client satisfaction across the board at Skyline and maintain our position as an industry leader.

Qualifications

Parks and Gardens