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Leadership Team

Industry Leaders in Tree, Shrub, and Lawn Care

SavATree’s Executive Team is comprised of experienced professionals with a combined industry tenure of over 100 years. Together they develop the strategy and tactics to ensure high levels of employee engagement, outstanding customer experience, environmental and economic sustainability of the Company. Our team has further embraced Lean Sigma as its chosen growth strategy and to create a culture of continuous improvement.

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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.

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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 lead 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.

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Ame Lewis

Chief Financial Officer

Ame has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Decisions Sciences from Rider University. She began her career in auditing and has since worked for regional, national, and global companies in various manufacturing, distribution, and services industries. As CFO, Ame is responsible for managing all financial aspects of SavATree. Along with her team, she tracks revenue, implements financial planning and analyzes the company’s financial strengths and weaknesses, proposing solutions to issues when necessary.

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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.

Don Becker headshot

Donald Becker

Chief Operating Officer

Don has a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry and a Bachelor of Art in Business Management from Syracuse University. As COO, Don develops and oversees company-wide sales and operations in all US regions including field crews and staff including service delivery, safety strategy and training programs, quality control, customer service, tree care industry compliance issues and fleet management.

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Luann O’Brien

Chief Marketing Officer

Luann has a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Pace University and a double major MBA in Marketing and Information Systems from Fordham University. She is also certified in the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. As CMO, Luann facilitates growth in revenues, professionalism, brand presence and overall success of the sales team. Together with her team, she works to increase the company’s brand presence in the communities that we serve through a mix of marketing programs, strategic alliances, community and trade events and online initiatives.

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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.

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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.