Asplundh Tree Expert Company

Last updated
Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC
Type Private
IndustryUtility Line Clearance and Infrastructure Services
FoundedAugust 28, 1928
FounderAsplundh Brothers Griffith, Lester, and Carl Hjalmar, Sr.
Headquarters708 Blair Mill Road, ,
United States
Area served
United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia
Key people
  • Matthew B. Asplundh
  • (CEO)
  • George Graham, Jr.
  • (President)
  • Joseph P. Dwyer
  • (CFO)
Revenue$4.7B (2021)
Number of employees
34,000+
Divisions UtiliCon Solutions, Ltd.
Subsidiaries Asplundh Brush Control Co.
Website https://asplundh.com/

Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC is an American company which specializes in tree pruning and vegetation management for utilities and government agencies. The company also performs utility line construction and maintenance, electrical systems testing, traffic signal and highway lighting construction and maintenance, automated metering infrastructure and home energy management program implementation. [1]

Contents

History

The Asplundh Tree Expert Co. was founded in 1928 in Pennsylvania by brothers Griffith, Lester and Carl Asplundh, members of a Swedish-American family who combined their educations and experience in arboriculture, electrical engineering and finance. [2] The company specialized in "trimming trees around power and telephone lines." [2] It was the first company to specialize in utility line clearance and vegetation management instead of residential services. [3] [4]

In 1940, the first issue of The Asplundh TREE magazine was issued to crews; the magazine is still being published. [2] By this time the company had expanded from Pennsylvania to the Midwest and the Middle Atlantic states. In 1956, a subsidiary company, Asplundh Brush Control Co., was established.

In 1990, Asplundh acquired New York based B & J Maintenance Co., Inc, as well as L. Fulcher Electric, which was over five small clearance firms in France which became Asplundh's French subsidiary. Also during this year, the company expanded to New Zealand, acquiring Electrix Limited, which changed its name to Electrix Asplundh. [1] By 1994 it had become the US's largest firm in utility clearance and one of the nation's largest privately held companies. [5]

Lisa (Lemole) Oz, the wife of former Pennsylvania senatorial candidate and television personality Mehmet Oz, is the maternal granddaughter of one of the cofounders.

Illegal hiring

In 2017, the company pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge and was ordered to pay a $95 million fine, the largest ever in an immigration case. This was after an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found that Asplundh hired thousands of illegal immigrants between 2010 and 2014. The illegal hiring was first uncovered in a 2009 audit, and although Asplundh did dismiss the workers that same year, many of the same workers were rehired by their managers after using fraudulent documents. "We accept responsibility for the charges as outlined, and we apologize to our customers, associates and all other stakeholders for what has occurred," said Chairman and CEO Scott Asplundh in a statement at the time. [6] [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arborist</span> Occupation concerning the care of perennial woody plants

An arborist, tree surgeon, or arboriculturist, is a professional in the practice of arboriculture, which is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants in dendrology and horticulture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern California Edison</span> Electrical utility in Southern California, United States

Southern California Edison (SCE), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electric utility company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximately 50,000 square miles. However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Imperial Irrigation District, and some smaller municipal utilities serve substantial portions of the southern California territory. The northern part of the state is generally served by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company of San Francisco. Other investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in California include SDG&E, PacifiCorp, Bear Valley Electric, and Liberty Utilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constellation Energy</span> Energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland

Constellation Energy Corporation is an American energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company provides electric power, natural gas, and energy management services. It has approximately two million customers across the continental United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NCO Group</span>

NCO Group, Inc., based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, United States, is a business process outsourcing company and collection agency that provides accounts receivable management, customer relationship management and back office solutions for its clients. Founded in 1926, it was a publicly traded company from 1996 through 2006, when it was purchased by One Equity Partners (OEP), the private investment arm of JP Morgan Chase & Co., and other co-investors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone & Webster</span>

Stone & Webster was an American engineering services company based in Stoughton, Massachusetts. It was founded as an electrical testing lab and consulting firm by electrical engineers Charles A. Stone and Edwin S. Webster in 1889. In the early 20th century, Stone & Webster was known for operating streetcar systems in many cities across the United States including Dallas, Houston and Seattle. The company grew to provide engineering, construction, environmental, and plant operation and maintenance services, and it has long been involved in power generation projects, starting with hydroelectric plants of the late 19th-century; and with most American nuclear power plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SPC Group</span> South Korean conglomerate

SPC Group is a South Korean food company based at Seoul that manufactures food, bread and confectionery products. Sangmidang, the precursor of Samlip General Food was founded in 1945 and the group was launched in 2004. SPC Group is one of the oldest brands in the confectionery and bakery industry in Korea. Its catering centers are based at Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriprocessors</span> Defunct slaughterhouse and meat packaging corporation

Agriprocessors was the corporate identity of a slaughterhouse and meat-packaging factory based in Postville, Iowa, best known as a facility for the glatt kosher processing of cattle, as well as chicken, turkey, duck, and lamb. Agriprocessors' meat and poultry products were marketed under the brand Iowa Best Beef. Its kosher products were marketed under various labels, including Aaron’s Best, Shor Habor, Supreme Kosher, and Rubashkins.

Unreported employment, also known as money under the table, working under the table, off the books, cash-in-the-claw, money-in-the-paw, or illicit work is illegal employment that is not reported to the government. The employer or the employee often does so for tax evasion or avoiding and violating other laws such as obtaining unemployment benefits while being employed. The working contract is made without social security costs, and does typically not provide health insurance, paid parental leave, paid vacation or pension funds. It is a part of what has been called the underground economy, shadow economy, black market or the non-observed economy.

Quanta Technology LLC is a utility infrastructure consulting company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Quanta Services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amey plc</span> United Kingdom-based infrastructure support service provider

Amey plc, previously known as Amey Ltd and Amey Roadstone Construction, is a United Kingdom-based infrastructure support service provider.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Davey Tree Expert Company</span>

The Davey Tree Expert Company, also known as Davey Tree, is an American multinational employee owned corporation. The company's main services are tree care, commercial grounds, utility and consulting. It has employees throughout the United States and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cevital</span> Largest private companies of Algeria

Cevital is the largest private conglomerate in Algeria, with interests in the agri-food sector, retail, industry and services, created by Issad Rebrab. The company's headquarters are in Kouba, Algeria. Cevital is a founding member of the Desertec project. The company's earnings in 2009 were US$3,589 million.

A. J. Irwin is a former federal agent who performed covert operations domestically and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, resulting in the prosecution and dismantling of criminal organizations involving alien smuggling, narcotics trafficking, weapons trafficking and other illicit activities. Additionally, he managed anti-terrorism and anti-smuggling enforcement operations for the Department of Homeland Security for the central corridor of the U.S. He is currently the Managing Director of Investigations for Yarbrough Strategic Advisors (YSA) in Dallas, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CRC Industries</span>

CRC Industries is a manufacturer and distributor of industrial chemicals for maintenance and repair of marine, electrical, industrial, automotive and aviation equipment.

Mastec, Inc. is an American multinational infrastructure engineering and construction company based in Coral Gables, Florida. The company provides engineering, building, installation, maintenance and upgrade of energy, utility and communications infrastructure. Its customers are primarily in the utility, communications and government industries.

The Master Arborist or Board Certified Master Arborist credential identifies professional arborists who have attained the highest level of arboriculture offered by the International Society of Arboriculture(ISA) and one of the two top levels in the field. There are several paths to the Board Certified Master Arborist, but typically on average each has been an ISA Certified Arborist a minimum of three to five years before qualifying for the exam. The certification began as a result of the need to distinguish the top few arborists and allow others to identify those with superior credentials. The ISA added specialty certifications of Utility Specialist, for those maintaining vegetation around electric utility wires, Municipal Specialist, for those with additional experience managing public urban trees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swift raids</span>

The 2006 Swift raids were a coordinated effort by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain and deport people who are present illegally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FirstService</span> Canadian corporation

FirstService Corporation is a Canadian public real estate services company, specializing in residential property services, and based in Toronto, Ontario. It is listed on NASDAQ and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Eliud Montoya, a naturalized American citizen, was murdered on August 19, 2017. Law enforcement authorities describe the murder as a contract killing undertaken by a fellow employee. The suspect, an illegal immigrant to the United States who worked at a tree care company, is alleged to have been motivated by evidence Montoya was preparing to present to the government to back up a complaint Montoya had filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that this employee had skimmed millions of dollars from the wages of illegal immigrants working for the tree care company.

References

  1. 1 2 Profile at answers.com
  2. 1 2 3 Our History at asplundh.com
  3. O’Bryan, Christopher M.; Straka, Thomas J.; Templeton, Scott R.; Caldwell, Judith D. (2007). "Economic Patterns in U.S. Arboriculture" (PDF). Arboriculture & Urban Forestry. 33 (4): 292–299. doi:10.48044/jauf.2007.033. S2CID   149450332. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-13.
  4. About Archived August 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine at Asplundh.com
  5. Chung, Sharon (July 8, 1994). "Strong Family Roots Help Asplundh Grow as Tree Expert Business". Los Angeles Times . p. 7.
  6. ""Tree company hit with $95 million fine for illegal hiring"". CBS News.
  7. "Asplundh" (PDF). September 19, 2017.
  8. "Asplundh Tree Experts, Co. pays largest civil settlement agreement ever levied by ICE". www.ice.gov. 28 September 2017. Retrieved 12 June 2022.