SavATree is a company majority-owned by Apax Funds. The management team of SavATree is a group of dedicated, socially minded individuals who have a significant equity ownership in the company.
Our Company Leadership
Daniel van Starrenburg
Executive Chairman
Daniel graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Arboriculture. Prior to attending college, he graduated from the Waldorf School in the Netherlands where he lived for part of his youth. Daniel purchased SavATree from founder Ralph Robbins in 1985. As CEO, Daniel orchestrates the growth, development and expansion of the company into new and existing markets. This includes championing the adoption of Lean Sigma for Service, designed to help the company be the best in every market it serves, as measured by customer satisfaction. Daniel is a licensed arborist, member of the Voice for Trees Political Action Committee, Vice Chairman of the World Presidents Organization (Fairchester Chapter) and a Board Member for the Rippowam Cisqua School.
Carmine Schiavone
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Schiavone serves as SavATree’s Chief Executive Officer and is a member of its Board of Directors. He has more than 25 years of experience leading large complex businesses in manufacturing, construction and field service based enterprises. Prior to joining SavAtree, Mr. Schiavone served in a variety of progressively responsible sales, operations, and general management roles with Tyco International (TYC) and Johnson Controls (JCI). In his latest role before joining SavATree, Carmine led the multi-billion dollar North America fire protection installation and services business for JCI with 130 field offices and more than 11,000 employees. Carmine holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Youngstown State University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh.
Robert Bellio
Chief Technology Officer
Rob has a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from the University of Phoenix. In addition, he holds an Advanced Business Analytics Certificate from the University of Phoenix and is a Lean Certified Kaizen Facilitator. As CTO, Rob is responsible for overseeing all of the technology-related strategic operations of the company including internal systems and client facing technologies.
Jedd Lucas
Chief People Officer
Jedd Lucas serves as Chief People Officer for SavATree and joined the company on April 5th 2021. He has more than 18 years of HR leadership experience developed across a variety of industry leaders such as General Electric, Amazon, Hilti A.G. and Freshly (subsidiary of Nestle U.S.A). Jedd most recently served as the VP of HR at Freshly, (a subsidiary of Nestle U.S.A) and the largest fresh-prepared, meal delivery service in the country. At Freshly, Jedd led the HR growth strategy in support of operational execution for 2,400 team members across all manufacturing, supply chain / distribution, and customer service operations nationwide. Prior to Freshly, Jedd assumed progressively larger leadership roles with Hilti A.G., including as Head of HR for the Northern European Region and leading a $90m field sales division in the southeast U.S. Jedd holds a B.A. in Psychology from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA and a master’s degree in Industrial / Organizational Psychology from the University of New Haven, CT.
Phil DeGisi
Chief Growth Officer
Phil DeGisi is the Chief Growth Officer at SavATree, where he leads consumer marketing and growth strategy. He has over 20 years of consumer experience across services and ecommerce businesses. Prior to SavATree, he co-founded Orchard, a next-gen real estate brokerage, where he served as Chief Product & Marketing Officer. Before starting Orchard, he served as Chief Marketing Officer of the fintech lending platform, CommonBond, and held marketing roles at Quidsi (acquired by Amazon) and Walmart.com. Phil received his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and his BA from Vassar College with a degree in economics.
Benjamin Stevie
Chief Operating Officer
Ben Stevie is the Chief Operating Officer at SavATree, where he leads total company operations. He has over 18 years-experience in the services industry with a significant amount being in field services. Prior to SavATree, Ben led operations for GE Gas Power’s global field services business. During his 18 years at GE, he worked in both their Aviation and Power businesses as well as spending 8 years as an expat in both the Middle East and Asia, all in operational roles. Ben received is MBA from Xavier University and has his undergraduate degree in Business from Northern Kentucky University.
Our Board
Corporate governance is a key pillar for SavATree with strong oversight provided by a Board of Directors that has varied experiences from different industries. The Board of Directors continues to embrace diversity as a way to improve overall company performance. Our commitment to regularly improving our governance policies is our way of ensuring the accountability, transparency, fairness and responsibility of the company for all stakeholders.
SavATree has strong systems from which the business operates that have been tested by independent experts to ensure sustainability with disaster recovery and strong countermeasures against cyber threats.
Our Team
SavATree has built a trusted team of highly engaged employees who believe in our mission and core values. In a once male dominated industry, SavATree’s diverse culture is challenging stereotypes, employing more women each year both in the office and field. This high performance team is held to a high level of expectation while demonstrating lean sigma and delivering on commitment.
Provided below are the cornerstones of our employee policy:
