An interview recorded live at PestWorld 2023 in Honolulu, HI (October 17, 2023), part of the "Off the Record with Paul Giannamore" series. The episode features Cassie Krejci, Head of Science & Innovation at Rentokil Terminix. The topic is inferred from the title; the surrounding coverage context comes from the description, with promotional links and boilerplate removed. # Channel Identity Observations — PestWorld 2023 Interview Video ## Video Overview - **Title:** *Rentokil Terminix Head of Science & Innovation, Cassie Krejci, Live from PestWorld 2023* - **Format:** On-camera interview/conversation conducted live at PestWorld 2023, an industry trade event. - **Observable presentation:** The host ("Paul," who runs a channel/podcast referenced as "the buzz," episode ~145) conducts a long-form, conversational interview with an industry guest. ## Intended Audience - **Pest control industry professionals** appear to be the primary audience: - The guest addresses industry members directly in closing: > "welcome to pestworld… I hope that you visit every vendor here" - > "if any of you are listening… every July second week of July we're either in Florida or Arizona" - Host asks industry-insider questions about competitors (Rollins), industry figures (Brett's departure, John Meers, Andy), and NPMA committees. - **Secondary consumer/general audience** is acknowledged only as the guest's own social media target, not the channel's: > "if you see it on Instagram or you see it on Tik Tok it's generally the consumer" ## Claimed Scope of the Channel - **No explicit self-description of the channel's scope is present** in the title or transcript. - **Demonstrated scope (observable):** - Long-form interviews with named executives and scientists in the pest control industry. - Coverage of industry events (PestWorld), business/industry news (Spruce Point's short report on Rollins), corporate mergers (Rentokil–Terminix integration), science and innovation topics, and professional associations (NPMA, Pi Omega fraternity). - Episode-based format: guest references prior appearance "around episode 101," implying a serialized interview show. ## Observable Presentation Patterns - **Insider-oriented, conversational style:** casual open ("my favorite entomologist"), personal questions about family relocation, running jokes ("we're a bunch of nerds"). - **Business + science blend:** questions span R&D facility details, staffing, ROI, proprietary technology, and technical entomology topics (sulfuryl fluoride fumigation, vector control, insect resistance). - **Industry-news awareness:** host brings up a recent Spruce Point hedge fund short report on Rollins, indicating the channel tracks pest-control-sector financial/business news. ## Claims vs. Demonstrations - **Creator claims about the channel:** None directly stated in this material. - **Guest claims about herself/organization** (distinct from channel claims): new role as "head of Science and Innovation… in North America," the 70,000 sq ft Dallas R&D facility, four priority areas (termites, vector control, residential, fumigation), and hiring of named scientists. - **Demonstrated channel behavior:** access to high-level industry figures (a Rentokil Terminix executive appears for a roughly hour-length conversation), recurring guest relationships, and event-floor recording. ## Notes for Synthesis - Channel identity must be inferred largely from demonstrated format (industry interview show, episode-numbered, event coverage) rather than explicit self-description, which is absent from this material. # Delivery Observation: Cassie Krejci — PestWorld 2023 Interview ## Tone - **Conversational and energetic**: rapid, informal speech marked by repeated intensifiers — *"it's wildly different,"* *"it was mindblowing to them,"* *"that is wild to me."* - **Confident and playful**: uses casual challenges like *"all right, bet"* when recounting skepticism about sulfuryl fluoride, and jokes with the interviewer (*"we're a bunch of nerds"*). ## Vocabulary & Framing Habits - **Business/innovation jargon**: consistently uses corporate vocabulary — *"where to play and how to do it,"* *"stage gate process,"* *"my model is 30/70,"* *"proactive ideation,"* *"return on the investment."* - **Numbered/structured listing**: enumerates priorities clearly — *"the team that I'm building are going to own four areas"* followed by an itemized rundown (termites, vector control, residential, fumigation). - **Concrete figures throughout**: *"70,000 square ft,"* *"56,000 people in the Rentokil organization,"* *"$105,000,"* *"26 feet long and 8 ft tall"* — grounding abstract points in specifics. ## Recurring Phrases & Rhetorical Patterns - **"How do we…" framing** for innovation goals: - *"how do we use less water how do we put trucks on the road less often"* - *"how do we begin to invest quicker and faster"* - **Self-aware humor about juggling demands**: *"you need to set the top 13 priorities for North America but also shoot a Tik Tok today."* - **Repeated appeals to motivation from doubt**: *"people are like you'll never be able to do that and that really just drives my uh my fire to do it."* ## Teaching / Explanatory Habits - **Explains by contrast or analogy**: contrasts her old and new roles — *"we're going to help solve problems today but we're hiring the team… this is how we're going to do pest control in 5 years."* - **Hiring-for-outsider-perspective rationale** delivered as a mini-lesson: *"I can teach anybody pest control… but to think differently about the way that we've done fumigation is hard for somebody that's done it the same way for 20 years."* - **Uses anecdotes as evidence**: the conference stranger story (*"he was like you will never not use sulfuryl fluoride and I was like all right bet"*) and the hotel-room school story for illustrating workload. ## Communication Patterns - **Filler and self-repair**: frequent *"um"* and restarts (*"the the the theme of not doing the same thing every day"*), consistent with unscripted live speech. - **Storytelling to personalize corporate topics**: family relocation details (*"her ability to just pick out what she was wearing every day made the trip for her"*) punctuate business discussion. - **Audience-addressed closing**: shifts to direct address — *"if any of you are listening… I encourage all of you to do the same thing."* ## Uncertainty Notes - Patterns above are well-supported by repeated instances across the transcript. Isolated quirks (e.g., the Spruce Point rebuttal, *"rainy with a chance of rodents"*) appear once and should not be treated as recurring habits. # Position Record: Cassie Krejci Interview — PestWorld 2023 **Speakers:** Cassie Krejci (Head of Science & Innovation, Rentokil Terminix North America) and the interviewer (host of "the buzz" podcast; name not stated in transcript). ## Career & Role - Krejci states she was previously **Director of Technical Services at Terminix** and is now **Head of Science and Innovation for Rentokil Terminix North America**, sitting on a **Global Marketing and Innovation team** supporting the North American business. - She reports Rentokil Terminix celebrated **one year as a combined company on October 12**. ## Dallas Innovation Center - **70,000 sq ft building**, long-term lease, relocating from College Station to Dallas in August. - **Intended opening:** late this year, but delayed by "HVAC systems and control panels" — now targeting **Q1 2024** ("first quarter of 2024" per transcript). - Will house an **R&D facility, insectary, glass-walled labs, a branded showroom**, plus collocated branches and the Texas "ambas" business. - Showroom design centers on a **26-foot × 8-foot TV** from Memphis, to show customers their pest control data from anywhere in the world. - Krejci says she's "working with a couple fine folks" who suggested red and green planters/carpet, and she refused: "Absolutely not. This is going to turn into a very branded building." - Recruits are relocating to Texas: "most all but one" moving on-site. ## Four Owned Priority Areas (North America team) 1. **Termites** — for the globe; "we in the United States suffer from termites more than any other parts of the world." 2. **Vector control** — residential (mosquitoes, ticks) and commercial US, co-owned with a UK teammate. 3. **Residential pest control** — "unique to the North American Market," with a goal to expand it globally. 4. **Fumigation (global)** — including the pursuit of **stopping the use of sulfuryl fluoride**. ## Fumigation / Sulfuryl Fluoride Positions - Krejci: driving factors are **safety** (technician exposure, corner-cutting in effective fumigations) and **greenhouse gas emissions** — "the damage that that molecule does to our environment." - She recounts a conference conversation where someone said "you will never not use sulfuryl fluoride," and her reaction: "All right, bet... I don't care how I have to do it... we're going to fix this problem." - She is deliberately hiring a **principal chemist with no pest control background**, arguing innovation requires "taking what you're really good at... but apply it to our industry. I can teach anybody pest control... but to think differently about the way that we've done fumigation is hard for somebody that's done it the same way for 20 years." ## Team & Staffing (10 people at start) - **Dr. Sad Ghar** (name as transcribed: "Dr sad gar") — principal termite entomologist, already in Dallas. - **Dr. Sydney Crawley** — joining November 1; formerly managed mosquito vertical with "Scots" (Scotts), then the "bugout brand"; moving to Dallas for vector. - **Dr. Howu** (as transcribed) — residential innovation product owner, field-based. - **Constantine Schwarz** — connected product owner, arrived from the UK. - Also a scientist dedicated to **connected technology/field-based technology scouting**; vector staff are *not* coming from VdA. ## Innovation Philosophy & Organizational Position - **30/70 model**: Rentokil Terminix will not become a manufacturer — ~30% built internally with Rentokil network colleagues, ~70% through vendor/industry partnerships. "There's no way I could create every tool that Rentokil Terminix needs." - At Terminix, she says she was **the only PhD in the organization** — not that a PhD matters for pest control quality, but it signaled a pursuit of doing pest control better; existing teams solve "today's problems," while the new team looks 12 months to 5 years out. - Innovation was deliberately placed with **Global Marketing and Innovation**, not operations, because innovation involves failure: "I'm going to make them really uncomfortable... we fail, and that's okay in product development." - **"Big Idea" sandbox**: an email address (bigidea@) for technicians to submit ideas, shared with UK team (e.g., ideas applicable to Australia). - **Stage-gate process** still "incredibly in development"; plan for ~10 **dedicated innovation technicians** nationwide, subsidized one day a week, to generate robust comparative field data across markets. - Business interface: scientists commit to "look up the table and say does it make sense" for price points and route frequency; early business cases ensure adoption. "I don't want to design something that nobody's going to use." - On comparison to Rollins: "I'm not familiar with Rollins' business in that realm"; she takes a "head down" approach, though some proprietary technologies will remain exclusive while general improvements will be shared industry-wide. ## Leadership & Integration - **Surprised by Brett's departure** (surname not given): "I don't know that I expected it. He was a great leader. I'm not really sure who's going to step in." - She speaks monthly with **John (Meers, per transcript)**, who engages on what North American brands need. - Biggest surprise of the year: her own capacity ("integrating two companies is no small feat") and the **enthusiasm around innovation**. ## Personal / Relocation - Moved to Dallas in August; husband, previously 20 years at one organization, "blindly trusted" her and is thriving. - Kids moved from a farm (30-minute school runs, no pizza delivery) to Dallas; they weigh pros and cons and "still get the best of both worlds" (horses at grandmother's 30 minutes away). Oldest daughter especially values choosing outfits after charter-school uniforms. - She hosted **20 Rentokil people at the first-ever Dallas innovation workshop** the same week her youngest started kindergarten, sending her to school "from a hotel room" while setting 2–5 year North American priorities. ## Industry Involvement - **Pi Omega fraternity** (501(c)(7), 73 years old): immediate past president, youngest president in its history; raised $105,000 over two years for technician education; ~$113,000/year given for academics; ~475 members internationally. Self-describes members as "a bunch of nerds" (non-sorority, includes non-scientist technical folks). - **NPMA**: Leadership Networking Committee (cornhole tournament at PestWorld raising money for United to Beat Malaria; "Academy" summer event — "spring break for pest control"), Technical Committee, and Political Action Committee / public policy work with the EPA. - **Social media**: LinkedIn targets the industry; Instagram/TikTok target consumers — "I want them to see a relatable face." She reads every interaction and is motivated by "that helped me do my job better." Terminix was initially "cautiously... nervous," but Rentokil's stance is "keep doing it... we trust you." No pushback currently. - **Harry's Big Adventure**: animated Terminix character; Krejci is Harry's entomologist; claims Harry "has more followers on Instagram than the Geico Gecko." - Education goals: university speaking (including non-entomology majors), and aspirations to use the Innovation Center for **internships and after-school programs** for high schoolers considering trade careers. She argues entomology graduates overlook professional pest control: "this is where all the money is." ## Insect Population Decline (Spruce Point / Rollins short-report question) - Krejci **did not read the report**. She disagrees with the decline-impacts-pest-control thesis: - Anecdotal "less bugs on my windshield" reflects **urban growth** — pests concentrate where humans build, store food, and create comfortable environments. - Local observations (e.g., "less flies in South Florida" — which she calls not "an actual true statement" as a framing example) miss population effects elsewhere, e.g., rodents in New York; cites her talk "**Rainy with a Chance of Rodents**" on weather events affecting pest populations. - Insects are "really successful"; **behavioral resistance and chemical resistance** drive the need for new technology, developed with EPA ("APA" as transcribed) engagement. - "There's no possible way to get rid of all the bugs responsibly" — the industry are "stewards of the environment" and of pollinators. ## Closing Message to Industry - Visit every vendor at PestWorld ("especially in Hawaii... it takes a lot of commitment"); think about how tools fit **your business model**, not just "what it looks like on paper." - Rentokil will not make everything pest control needs, but every company in the room has access to the same tools. ## Unresolved Tensions / Qualifications Noted - The fumigation goal ("you'll never be able to do that") remains aspirational; no replacement technology named. - The deployment process is explicitly "still in works," "incredibly in development." - She declines to compare with Rollins due to unfamiliarity. - Successor to Brett is unknown to her at time of recording. # Speaker Attribution & Provenance Record **Video:** Rentokil Terminix Head of Science & Innovation, Cassie Krejci, Live from PestWorld 2023 ## Speakers | Speaker | Role | Evidence | |---|---|---| | **Cassie Krejci** | **Guest** — Head of Science and Innovation, Rentokil Initial North America (formerly Director of Technical Services at Terminix) | Interviewee; states her role and title change directly in transcript | | **Unidentified male host** (addresses her as "my favorite entomologist," "Cassie"; called "Paul" by guest) | **Creator / Host** — podcaster referencing "the buzz" podcast, episode ~145 | Asks questions, references prior episode ~101 appearance | ## Third-Party Individuals Referenced (not speakers) - **Dr. Sad Gar** — principal termite entomologist, hired, based in Dallas - **Dr. Sydney Crawley** — joining Nov 1; formerly managed mosquito vertical with Scotts, then Bugout brand - **Dr. Howu** — residential innovation product owner (field-based) - **Constantine Schwarz** — connected product owner, relocated from UK - **Dr. Faith Oi** — mentioned in passing conversation - **John Meers / John** — leadership contact (monthly calls) - **Brett** — departed leader (departure surprised guest) - **Andy** — leader supportive of the Innovation Center design; mentioned also re: flea control economics - **Fat Pat** — referenced as former podcast co-host/guest context ## Referenced Sources & Claims - **Spruce Point Capital report** — activist hedge fund report recommending shorting Rollins, citing secular insect-population decline; host notes it focused on non-urban/pollinating insects; guest states she did **not** read it and offers her own rebuttal (anecdote-based reasoning, behavioral/chemical resistance) - **Third-party claims challenged:** guest disputes the insect-decline thesis ("I wouldn't agree with it") — recorded as her stated position, not verified ## Organizations & Events Mentioned - **Rentokil Terminix** — one-year anniversary of merger (Oct 12); new Dallas Innovation Center (70,000 sq ft, opening ~Q1 2024); fumigation/sulfuryl fluoride phase-out goal; "big idea" email sandbox; Harry's Big Adventure program - **Pi Omega fraternity** (501(c)(7), 73 years old) — guest was youngest president; raised ~$105,000; ~$113,000/yr academic grants; ~475 members; ~$500K endowment - **NPMA** — leadership networking committee, technical committee, political action committee, Academy event; **United to Beat Malaria** cornhole fundraiser at PestWorld - **EPA** — regulatory engagement via public policy committee - **Rollins** — competitor; guest states unfamiliarity with their innovation operations - **Harry's Big Adventure** — animated character; guest claims more Instagram followers than "the Geico Gecko" (unverified claim) ## Promotional Segments - **Closing remarks:** guest promotes visiting PestWorld vendors and educational sessions (Hawaii venue) - **Harry's Big Adventure / Terminix social content** — described promotional/educational initiative - Guest's **TikTok/LinkedIn/Instagram** activity — company-sanctioned promotional content, per her account - Host's closing suggestion of flying guest to **Puerto Rico** — implicit future-content promotion ## Availability & Uncertainty - **Curated metadata:** none supplied - **Timestamps:** none present in transcript - **Speaker names:** host's full name not stated in transcript ("Paul" appears once in guest's dialogue); roles inferred from questioning pattern - **Comment availability:** not indicated - Transcription errors present (e.g., "renil/rill" = Rentokil; "seur fluoride/sopur fluoride" = sulfuryl fluoride; "2024" rendered as "2023/24") my favorite entomologist a lot has happened since we since Fat Pat and I had you on the buzz it has I think you're on episode 145 right now I was there around 101 was ages ago feels like it so where are we now Cassie congratulations on your new role thank you thank you a lot has changed I think um we just celebrated this last week one year as R Hill Terminex and it was like is it really just one year yes that's right so on October 12th it was one year and we thought wow look at how much we've accomplished so um I now uh last time we spoke I was director of technical services at r or at at Terminex and um I'm now head of Science and Innovation for um rill initial in North America so what that means is I get to um sit on a Global Marketing and Innovation team that supports our North American Business including renil Terminex and so I also noticed that you're going to have a new center in Texas right I heard about it on my trip to London in March and I see what you're posed on social media you guys when's that going to be done um yeah I've been I I've been posting little teasers on social media because I think people do find a lot of interest in you're going to invest in what it which it's it's rare for pest control but it it's a cool little Endeavor that um renil's doing but I moved to Dallas in August really um I know that yeah so I I relocated from College Station up to Dallas and um I signed a a long-term relationship with a with a building that is um 70,000 square ft okay and that's a really big building in which we're going to put an R&D facility um specific to the the areas of innovation that we are focused on and uh we will have some branches collocating with us along with our Texas ambas business so what will you do there specifically yeah I think as long as I can maintain the the the theme of not doing the same thing every day I'll be happy but um North America and the team that I'm building are going to own four areas of the rill business as far as the uh science and Innovation side goes and so that is termites for the globe obviously we in the United States we suffer from uh termites more than any other parts of the world but um so we'll hire the Specialists that work on termites for North America and terit for the globe we will also own um vector control with um residential vector control including mosquitoes and ticks commercial ve uh vector control in the United States and then um that is co-owned actually with my teammate in in the UK we will own um residential plus control because as you you know residential Pest Control is really something uh unique to the North American Market but with the priority of saying all right how how can we expand residential Pest Control into other part parts of the world but also um and this is the one that people are like you'll never be able to do that and that really just drives my uh my fire to do it but um fumigation we will own fumigation for the globe including um our pursuit of not using sopur fluoride anymore so these would be the four main areas that you'll focus on when's this thing opening oh yeah you I think we we had intended to open late this year um but with HVAC systems and control panels and all the things that go into building a building uh we're shooting for first quarter of 20124 it's looking like we'll have a nice Red Ribbon to cut sometime around then well other folks from around the world moved to Dallas because of this yep um so as I'm recruiting the team that's going to staff this Innovation Center that is part of the conversation how do you feel about Dallas um I'm a huge advocate for Texas because I've always been in Texas I think the organization likes Texas too and so um I have um most all but one right now moving moving into Texas um to be on site and be enologist and you know I've been a field scientist my entire career somebody who travels a lot somebody who helps in the field and I've never had to go into an office and so this will be of change for me as well but um it will be very cool to be in a building where we have an insectary where I can go back and Paul comes in and you know I say do you want to go see our um our colonies of ants and you're like heck yes but having a building like that and having the specialized space allows us to not just show our customers but our you know our field teams and our our leadership what we're working on and so how different will the North American operation be versus what they're doing in the UK today so um I think that it allows us to concentrate on the priorities that North America has so for the longest time since its Inception the power center in the UK has supported all types of pest control across the globe which is really hard to do if you think about dependencies in the EU or the way we do Termite Control in Asia it's just it's it's it's almost compartmentalizing to say oh but also we have a very large Market in North America so this allows us to say okay Cassie and team will own those four priorities the UK gets to concentrate on uh things they're very good at as far as rodent control and uh fly lights and I take priorities that can be um realized a lot quicker because it is um just it's part of our business it's a part of our core in North America um so I I guess the simplest way to say that is we get to pull in more resources um innovation's fun uh it's can be messy from an operations perspective but having more people to drive that return on the investment the renil's doing y um is exciting now the renil folks don't like me to meddle into their integration Affairs so I will not but I mean in your mind in your little neck of the woods there what sort of capabilities is renil bringing into the table that Terminex didn't have when it comes to this entomology area yeah um I don't know that anybody know this but uh at Terminex I was the only PhD in the whole organization um and not that a PhD has anything to do with how well you do pest control but what it says is I was really in the pursuit of um changing how how how how we did Pest Control better but um to hire scientists to say all right you're going to be the proactive arm that says this is what tomorrow looks like this is what 5 years looks like is something that um a team really hasn't done so we we retained our teams of Technical Services and quality control folks that said hey we're going to help solve problems today but we're hiring the team um of of specialized scientist to say this is how we're going to do Pest Control in 5 years or in TW in in 12 months or set goals that are farther out than the next quarter how was your day-to-day change over the last year it's wildly different yeah um in a in a positive way people have asked me um almost candidly how's it going I feel like all of us in the rill Terminex world have gotten that question more than a couple times um and this is literally the best thing I could have done everything from you know the early story of I said yes on October 12 to yeah keep going even after I knew about the integration but to saying yes to innovation has led to me continuing to be happy in this organization and that's a huge driver for me is are you happy how did you get your husband to move to Dallas he is so open um he had been in an organization for 20 years and he was ready to do something else change his skill set a little bit so um he said let's do it he he's blindly trusted me for whatever reason um for our entire marriage and so he continued to do so and he's I think he's thriving in Dallas he enjoys it and what about the kids they love it um okay so a little background of this is we lived on a farm and I took my kids to school 30 minutes One Way 30 minutes back and um I we couldn't have pizza delivered to our house there was just no delivery and so when we moved to Dallas the fact that Target would deliver within two hours and there was a restaurant across the street it was mindblowing to them and so I asked them sometimes I said Do you ever wish we lived on a farm and they are like well here's the pros and cons and we used to have horses um in fact I moved them to my mother's and she's only 30 minutes away and so they still get the best of both worlds so they're enjoying it it was a good move and I would imagine now they're obviously in a different school yes how's that it's good so I didn't have any frame of reference for what I should be looking for and so I trusted I blindly trusted strangers on the internet to tell me which school my kids should go to um and I moved to Dallas around I'm going to say August 7th that week I hosted 20 people from rill in the UK rill North America in Dallas and held the first ever innovation Workshop in Dallas at the same time my kids are upstairs getting ready for their first day of kindergarten in second grade and I'm sending them to school from a hotel room because our apartment wasn't ready in Dallas yet and it was like I have all of my constituents downstairs and it was it was just I look back at it I'm like we did that one we were able to set the priorities downstairs for North America for the next 2 to 5 years but also I sent my last daughter off to kindergarten and we're all okay for it yeah so um but overall they they enjoy the to school they enjoy the friends my um oldest daughter was in Charter School wearing uniforms and so her ability to just pick out what she was wearing every day made the trip for her so back to the new center in Dallas I mean how big will this thing be in terms of people working out of that when it's fully matured so aside from what pest is bringing in CU we are bringing four branches so I feel like that's un uh unfair to count uh we're starting out with 10 bodies if you will um and so to break that up structurally it's um we have somebody con committed to Connected technology as you know um rill across the globe is um very focused on our ability to digitally monitor everything that we do I have um a uh a scientist that will be field-based and his job is to come to events like this and say yeah that is a new technology that we want to partner with and then get it into the field he's very much a where to play and how to do it typee of person I also have a um principal Vector entomologist and um they will be responsible for mostly mosquito um but tick being a very close close second to that priority um and then a principal entomologist that will be focused on termites is the vector folks coming from vda they're not so um and I can guess I can go ahead and say this um so we hired um Dr sad gar as the principal termite entomologist um he was already located in Dallas um Dr Sydney Crawley will be joining us in um on November 1st she um managed the mosquito vertical with Scots and then we hired her into the bugout brand and she'll be moving to Dallas to do Vector um Dr howu is the um um residential Innovation product owner that will be field-based and then Constantine Schwarz actually just got off a plane from the UK last week um to Jo join us here in Dallas as our connected product owner and so your your role now is migrating more into that of management than it is actually Technical Services like you did before right yeah so I had a very I had a great team in Technical Services I had um a team of very field-based scientists that were really good at pest control and really good at solving problems and I'm proud to say that they are thriving every single one of them a year later is still thriving in Technical Services with r Terminex um but it is it it is it's been such an interesting and um challenging but in the best way possible to hire a new team from scratch to say one this is what Innovation means for pest control because most people associate Innovation with all of our lovely vendors here our manufacturers but what does innovation mean for Pest Control was a conversation I've had with every single one of them um but also will you move to Dallas will you relocate yep so and and what does it look like and what is this make Bel building that you keep talking about and so uh it's been a fun conversation and I do think that just like the building I'll look back in a year and go that was hard but that was good well you're on the Forefront of innovation and Pest Control what's on the horizon in your mind our ability to do more with less more efficiently is the easiest way to say that my driving priorities behind everything I look at is safety um first and foremost I really don't want technicians on a roof or in an attic as often as they are y I also don't want them exposed to um things that could could hurt them as often as they are and there's always a pursuit of a safer form of pest control but also sustainability so not just um environmental contamination but how do we use less water how do we put trucks on the road less often so if you're a fluoride how do we stop using a greenhouse gas so um it's how do you stop using that you think innovatively you think outside the box so um people have asked me and that's one of the roles I'm still hiring as a principal chemist um or say well have you talked to so and so have you talked to so and so and I'm like they are great they're absolutely great in the fumigation space but I'm hiring somebody who knows nothing about P control because honestly to me to think outside of the box and to think differently about the way that we do things you almost have to take what you're really good at which may be formulation chemistry or modeling the way gases move but apply it to our industry I can teach anybody pest control anytime I can teach them termites I can teach them mosquitoes but to think differently about the way that we've done fumigation is hard for somebody that's done it the same way for 20 years what what is it what are the issues that you have with the current fation protocols um the safety is a huge part of it um we you know we've all struggled struggled with um cutting corners and seeing mistakes made in effective fumigations um but but ultimately the driving Factor behind the pursuit of less seur fluoride is um the greenhouse gas emissions the the damage that that molecule does to our environment I had a really fun um conversation recently I was at a conference and I introduced myself to somebody who I've never met before um but he kind of operates in the same space um I just hadn't met him in real life and I said hey I'm Cassie I'm running the team in Dallas that um you know along with this topic we are um trying to stop using sopal fluoride and he's like what are you talking about and I said no no no sorry I said Ral Terminex is not going to use seora FL and he was like you will never not use Sor s fluoride and I was like all right bet like that was that was enough to say I don't care how I have to do it I I'm not going to use um that that was enough motivation to say I don't know who have to hire but we're going to fix this problem is it unusual for a pest control service provider to be focused on this rather than an a chemical company it may be I think that we have a an edge in that we understand what needs to happen from a service perspective to um to partner with somebody who may have specialty within the chem engineering World um so people often especially as this Innovation Center has come up come across or come up they've said well are you are you turning into a manufacturer and I'm like no not really I mean my model is 3070 I have 10 people I just described to you there's no way I could create every tool that rill Terminex needs in North America so the relationships that I have and um you know continue to earn in this exhibit hall are are those that will support me in those 70% the 30% I have really good um colleagues within the rill Network to help me accomplish that so um you know I even before rill came along and I was in manufacturing and in product development elsewhere I thought you know rill does a phenomenal job of marketing Innovation and I always thought that was so cool and it's really what attracted me to um the organization just as a part outside and they can continue to do so and I think just setting up the North American Center um allowing me to Source the best scientists I can find is an example of that that yeah we've we've got pest control but how do we begin to invest quicker and faster in what we know we need to be successful how how do you compare Legacy Termino versus rill with the focus on entomology chemicals Innovation what were the major differences I think that both organizations were forced in any service-based company you're forced to solve today's problems and it's part of daily kpis and monthly success but when the organization came together they said you know we really want to invest in that proactive form of Fest control and so um that has been what bringing the companies together did is they said you know now we have people who want to do the proactive side and we can allow them to think innovatively um in fact when we were deciding where to put innovation in the whole rill World they said how do you feel about operations and I said I love all of our operational leaders but I'm going to make them really uncomfortable yeah we we fail and that's okay in product development that's okay in Innovation but operations may look at us and go what are you doing so they said why don't you go sit with the Global Marketing and Innovation team and I was like absolutely um it was always a pursuit of mine to support marketing more closely because again rill does it really well and so my ability to join um the Global Marketing and Innovation team um in the UK was really cool because I got to take a lot of learnings from what they have what they had done successfully and maybe some failures and almost get an edge on what we're going to do in North America so it seems like this is taking much more front and center in the new organization your department actually is more meaningful I guess to the organization to the combined organization than it was historically at either of them stand alone yeah I I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from technicians in North America that um previously maybe they had an idea they saw a way to do something better in the field they may have shot it to me as director of technical service and I was like that is great I got to solve this problem today but now they see this team being set up and they say you know their whole job is proactive ideation um I can send it to to Cassie and team and say somebody's going to seriously think about this so um one of the things that we're standing up is what I call big idea so if you email big idea at renil Terminex you're able to get it into the sandbox um and say hey I you know I visited with a technician in uh St Louis Missouri and they had this really great idea about how we could um be more efficient um and and it gets into the sandbox and then I begin to share those ideas with the UK team and we're like you know that also makes sense in Australia um so it's representation really it's representation for new ideas that aren't uh bogged down by daily operations and I think that's really cool what are some of your biggest surprises over the last year um my ability to my ability to handle more than I thought I could integrating two companies is no small feed I think anyone um John John Meers is a great example of that he's like yeah we can do this and we can do this well and we we we have um but I think my biggest surprise let me think the enthusiasm has been one of one of the biggest around Innovation I don't know that anybody um knew what we were doing when we said we're going to set up Innovation but the enthusiasm around you can do this you're going to you know make our lives easier better safer um has been really empowering that's where a lot of my inspiration for it comes from how surprised Were You by Brett's departure I was surprised um I I don't know that I expected it he he was a great leader um I I'm not really sure who's going to step in John um is who I speak to most often in fact I have a a call with John monthly and he he says you know have you thought about this or you spoke with these people we have quite a bit of communication on um what the rill ter X brands in North America need and I really appreciate that leadership is able to reach out to me and say this is what we need CU I take it again back to the sandbox I'm able to prioritize and and now that I have people hired also say hey can you follow up on this you know you guys will work in this new Innovation Center you've got all these scientists tinkering around with Innovation and chemical abstractions but how does this stuff actually get to deployed across a massive organization are you guys having meetings with operators on a routine basis H how how does that work yeah um I will say it is incredibly in development um the the process is still in Works uh we call it a stage gate process much like any other product development process so essentially when it comes from mitigation it goes through several different business committees and says is this a good thing but by the time it gets to a field trial situation uh what I will plan to do is have about 10 technicians throughout the country um that are dedicated Innovation technicians you know the data that we get out of a field study is only as good as what the technician is able to provide us so um I want to say Hey you are an excellent technician I'm going to um subsidize you so that you aren't bogged down by your daily um your your your your daily obligations but I want you to focus on Innovation this one day a week and that allows me to have a technician that's doing bed bugs in a brownstone in Brooklyn and a technician doing bed bugs in a slab on grade in St Louis and comparatively look at different markets so not only do I get a more robust data set and say you know that product or that process um is better fit for this Market um without also sending you know one of my scientists out to the field in 10 different markets we have field collaboration and we have uh technicians that are very open to sharing whether that worked or not and that's really important and and how much were you guys focus on the business aspec of business you know when I sat down with Andy and March he was talking about his scientists and The Innovation Center and said you know hey we found out a great way to control fleas the problem is does that make any money yeah so H how will your department interface with the business side yeah that's a really interesting question um so rill and termin have done a really good job before we became the joint both leaders of both organizations were really good about looking down the table figuratively and saying what does the science say I in turn make the commitment to look up the table and say does it make sense for your product um so if we adopt a new technology or if the business needs something specific to a price point or a route frequency I can absolutely design that thing and that's the conversation that happens it's why we have um a business case case early on that has leaders going what about this before we get to hey Paul I design this and you're like but it doesn't match anything else we we we continue to take North American leaders through the process from ideation to launch and say do we have the commitment does this align with your priorities um and that's really important to me I don't want to design something that nobody's going to use it's a huge investment and so the ability for them to say I had a hand in this they're also more likely to adopt it for the long term and that's important how is what you're doing at reill gerx compared to Rollins I'm not familiar with rollins' business um in that realm um they have some great scientists and we continue to chat about what we're currently using I think I kind of take the head down approach of I've never really asked permission to be successful and so in this instance I know what renil Terminex needs to be successful regardless of what any other company's doing um and and and that's important now there are Technologies and improvements that will be proprietary to rill Terminex because we have you know goals related to technician um retaining technician and acquiring customers but there are General technologies that just make us all better at pest control and I look forward to sharing those with anybody in the industry outside of innovation what are some of your other personal goals objectives hot button issues I I stay involved that's that's an understatement um so I today for example I am really involved in Pai Omega I stepped aside as president I've been doing that for two years now and it was time for me to be um immediate past president it's a great organization um this year we raised or this last two years we raised $105,000 and that money was um directly intended to benefit the education of technicians in the field so we give $113,000 a year for for academics but it you know the pursuit of making technicians better is something I felt passionately about but what is Pai Omega it's not your sorority it's not a sorority it is a fraternity we're actually a 501 C7 um so a social organization with a philanthropic arm and the goal is to connect and enrich the urban Pest Management community so really your opportunity to um just meet other people who um Li love the science the practice of pest control it's been around for 73 years now I was actually the youngest president in the fraternity's history we managed about half a million of endowment um and uh it's it it's I think we're bat in like 475 members right now internationally so it's science science focused it is um we have plenty of folks that aren't traditional scientists and are really just really good technical folks so it's safe to say it were a fraternity you wouldn't be the coolest one on campus no we in in an endearing way I'll say we're a bunch of nerds yeah okay in addition to this what else are you what else you've got going on oh I so as I knew my Pai Oma tenure was ending I um said hey mpma what else uh so I join I was appointed to the leadership networking committee um in fact we have an event going on here at pestor our our goal is really similar to connect and grow leaders Within um the National Association so for example there's a a cornhole tournament going on over in the corner where folks can um help us raise money for uh United to beat malaria but also learn more about the leadership networking committee I'm also a member of the technical committee which I brought up nerds that's a room full of all of us again from very large pest control companies around the around the United States that um meet and say these are our recommendations from a technical perspective on how to do Pest Control better on the leadership part is that leadership within State and National organizations or is that within companies both I would say that a lot of us double uh you know double hit in other parts of pest control um the committee really is to recruit I big event every year is Academy so Academy happens in the summer I call it spring break for Pest Control it's always in a wicked hot location in the middle of July but it's so fun it's unlike any other event of the year and so if any of you are listening and you're like what are you doing every sumary every July second week of July we're either in Florida or Arizona um doing silly games but in turn learning more about leading teams in very uh adlib situations so that's uh most of my npma committee uh commitments I do serve on um the political action committee sit in public policy so that we can make sure that we're doing the best pest control with the EPA um and then of course I'm on social media constantly trying you're still doing that so how's that going it's interesting I will say uh it's been a lot harder to balance the bucket of I need to inform um I I want to share information with oh also you need to start a new team and you need to build a 70,000 ft facility and you need to set the top 13 priorities for North America but also shoot a Tik Tok today so it's it's been a learning experience for me to say this is what's important and here's how I prioritize what's important right now and I do think I'll come back around and be able to create more content um but for the most part I enjoy it I'm still getting positive reactions from folks that are like I saw your Tik Tok or I follow you on LinkedIn and that's that's really where the inspiration comes from is did you find Value in that and if you interacted with it I read every single person that interacts with a post and says that helped me do my job better today and it just drives me to say next time I can sit down and make the Tik Tok have you experienced any push back on your social media Med from any of the companies I haven't so I think to be completely honest I think when I joined Terminex they were cautiously they were nervous yes they were like you you're we see you're good at this but are you good at this for Terminex and as as time went on and especially as I joined renil they were like keep doing it like it's we trust you um I think that's been one of the coolest things is that they they do instill a ton of trust in what I'm doing and know that uh the sharing of information really is because we all need to be good at pest control and um I enjoy it it uh it allows people to relate more with a very big company um if we're putting content out there but I mean is your target audience for that other folks in the industry or is it the consumer or both it's a little bit of both and you'll see that if you see something on LinkedIn I'm doing it for our industry that's where the LinkedIn is my people um it's it's the people that we work with every day if it if you see it on Instagram or you see it on Tik Tok it's generally the consumer um because that's where my customers are and I want them to see a relatable face when they think about Pest Control um a lot of times Terminex or rill will have different social media initiatives they're like hey can we have can we send you some kid videos and you respond to them and I'm like yes absolutely those are the easy ones to me cuz I have five and seven-year-old girls and if anybody if they had a question about um you know how does the dry cleaners work I'd love to be able send that video somewhere and them learn something so when somebody sends me videos of their kids I'm like yes I will Stitch that and I will teach them more about what's happening in their home when a PES control uh operator comes to your house and how many of those do you get I get a fair amount yeah so um one of the initiatives that that uh Terminex has is called Harry's big adventure and my my uh claim to Harry's success is he has more followers on Instagram than the Geico Gecko but I'm Harry's enologist and so Harry is an animated character and he goes to schools and he teach kids about bugs but um I also I D insects for Harry so Harry responds to audiences and says hey you found a lunamoth um and so it it's it's all just different ways to reach different parts of the population and help them understand one Pest Control is necessary um to your health to your home health but it's also a um something that you can understand it doesn't have to be scary doesn't have to be full of chemicals and safety issues it's something you can understand and um ask questions about are you involved in in the educational aspect um of the pest control industry I mean you get involved in these PHD programs yourself now as a practitioner I try I um so I'll have universities ask me to come speak and I love that especially when it's non enologist I no I don't get me wrong I love talking to other enologists and saying come join the pest control industry because I think think as a whole we don't do a great job of like scooping people into professional pets they all see Agriculture and they see research and they're like that's where I would end up and I'm like no no no no this is where all the money is yeah um but uh non majors are great audience because I can um say hey when you go off and you go to um school to be an occupational therapist this is what Pest Control means to someone you may see in your practice or something like that and so I love that conversation I also enjoy um and and one of the things that I hope to do I was talking to Dr Faith oi a second ago um and she reminded me you know one of one of the things I want to do is really use the Innovation Center to launch people into this industry so if that is setting up a summer internship or setting up a um after school program where High School seniors can come learn the trade maybe their goal is not college but they want to learn what we do from a pest control perspective then that's what I want you to is the Innovation Center for so I think the world is our oyster on that front but the goal really is to say come join us you have talents every single one of you do so what makes different companies successful for different reasons but come use them in P control interesting yeah what else can you tell me oh let's see you've got so many between the Committees you're on in new Innovation Center moving to you've got a lot of stuff going on but I feel like there's more so so I um let's see I I I think I mentioned and everyone's like what are you what are you working on these days I have three different buckets so the team I mentioned um I'm pursuit of a couple enologists if anybody H has those in their pocket okay um I am building the center I think it's been a really fun I use that term loely building the center we did lease the building for a long term but people people I don't know that people understand there are 56,000 people in the REO organization yep and I get to pick out the carpet and what the ceiling in the conference room is going to look like and that's wild to me and it's a lot but I do know that in q1 of next year I'm going to stand on the curb and I'm going to say I did that and it's impressive and I know that if Andy and all and my team who are here get off the plane from the UK and they walk up they're going to be like this is the Innovation Center so if it's ugly we know who to blame is what you're saying please okay I will say I'm working with a couple fine folks from rill Terminex organization um who just happened to say well why wouldn't we do everything a little you know put red Planters and green Planters and red and green carpet and I was like absolutely not this is going to turn into a very branded building so it's going to be beautiful um we've had a lot of um support from Andy for example I said this is you know this is what we want want it to look like and he said that sounds great you know he's been very supportive even from afar um it's going to be a really cool place to walk in I designed it in a way that um it's very much a spoken Hub pattern so if you come in the front door um you're going to walk into an ambus green wall and see some you know some of that technology but then I'll be able to take you past uh lab spaces that are fully glass y so maybe there's something PRI proprietary or maybe there's something from a safety perspective that I don't want you in the lab but I can still walk you along the glass and say you know this is what Dr sad G is working on in the termite lab or here's what Dr Sydney Crawley working on the mosquito lab um and I think it it takes off the veil of um what are we doing in Pest Control it's like no let me show you yeah let me take you into the insectary and show you how we grow insects for research um or or how a study is set up to show efficacy or speed that is that is what we want to do and I I'm happy to share any of it with anyone who wants to come by the I'll elaborate and say that the showroom is probably one of the areas that I'm most excited about um if you go to the UK and you go to our showroom over there it is um very much like here's the things we've created and you're able to put it in your hands but data is such a huge part of our story in North America and what our Pursuit is of you know we have a lot of land MKS we have a lot of technicians how do we use this data to better serve our customers and so um we had a TV in Memphis and it was 26 feet long and 8 ft tall and I designed the conference room around this TV to say I'm going to bring our customers in and be able to show them what their pest control is doing from anywhere in the world yeah as long as I have the ability to monitor it there I can show you in Dallas Texas you know Spruce point which is an activist hedge fund wrote a report a few weeks ago on Rollins recommending to short the stock and one of their arguments in their report is that there's a secular decline in insect populations around the world now I perused the report and it seemed like they they were largely focused on nonurban related insects and ones that you find out in biomass out in the middle of the world um but and and largely you know pollinating insects right um moths butterflies but did you happen to glance at that report I'm assuming not I I didn't um I can I can guess where they were headed with it and a lot of it stems from the anecdotal observations from people who say I've L bugs on my windshield and you're like yeah you do CU your roads are committed and your urban areas are growing therefore the bugs who are dependent on you building a home and you putting food inside of it and you maintaining the environment that's where they're going they don't care about the highway like yeah there's probably less on your windshield because our urban areas are growing and they're saying this is you know a learned behavior I need to be close to where the food source is so I wouldn't agree with it I'd say that in fact i' give a talk it's called rainy with a Chance of rodents and it's talks about um not just rodents but um insect fests as well and how different cyclical weather events or disastrous weather events can infect uh pest populations in general and so I think you can get bogged down by looking at very um specific areas and say Yeah in South Florida we had less flies this year that's not an actual true statement but you can look at it and say that but then you're not paying attention to what happened to the rodent population and in in New York so so while I have this huge priority and goal to be the world's best um or to support the world's best pest control company and provide the world's best service I don't think that I'm good enough to eliminate all of the pests I think that uh I think that just basic human practices of building living breathing and creating really comfortable environments will perpetuate the problem so you're not concerned about a decline in the insect population impacting no insects are really successful um you know behavioral uh resistance to the way we do Pest Control is a big thing we look at that the insects really just learn what we're doing and change the behavior and because there are strategist to reproduce very quickly they pass that learned behavior on very fast that's just one form of resistance you have chem resistance and so you know we work with the APA quite a bit to say this is what our goals are sustainability but we also need to create new technology that combats different forms of resistance so while I think folks outside of this industry and say you're getting rid of all the bugs yeah that's our goal is to control the environments that we operate in but there's no possible way to get rid of all the bugs responsibly and that's that's our goal is we are responsible we're stewards of the environment we're stewards of our customers homes and businesses um we're and you know our our priorities lie around protecting the actual pollinators and protecting the environment you know in closing on our first day here in pestworld is there anything else you want to say to the industry welcome to pestworld um I this is my favorite event of the Year I hope that you visit every vendor here because they take a lot of it takes a lot of effort especially in Hawaii yeah Tak a lot of effort to get here it takes a lot of commitment to this industry and they really do want you to be better at Pest Control I would say uh think about your business as you walk into these educational sessions and as you talk to folks on the exhibit hall floor here think about your business and how it fits your model um you know back to the conversation of oh is rill going to make everything um that that we use for pest control and the answers no but I recognize that you know every pest control company in the room has access to to the tools here yep so in North America specifically and globally we look at the way we provide a service in different areas so while we may see a tool and be able to use a tool we think about it in the models that exist for our business and I encourage all of you to do the same thing think about the way it affects your business not just what it looks like on paper awesome yeah congratulations again thank you I cannot wait to come back around and share more with you on our successes for these first you know set of priorities and what the team looks like and um I appreciate you having me and allowing me to tell the story I think we're going to have to get the runup team to fly you down to Puerto Rico for your next session I would love that I've never been to Puerto Rico there's non-stop flights DFW dju so sounds perfect thanks so much Gass thank you are