Rod Marquardt has joined Valent Professional Products as national accounts manager.

Valent Professional Products hires national accounts manager

Taking the next step in a career that has led him from the grain elevators of the Canadian prairie to the Turks & Caicos Islands and back again to the North American mainland, Rod Marquardt has joined Valent Professional Products as national accounts manager.


A native of Winnipeg, Canada, Marquardt fills a new position dedicated exclusively to Valent’s rapidly growing lawn care operator (LCO) business segment. From his base in Palm City, Fla., Marquardt will be responsible for the day-to-day management of large national accounts and the development of new national and regional LCO accounts.


“This is a dream job for me. I’ve used Valent products for years and now I get to sell these outstanding brands for a company with a great image and reputation,” Marquardt said. “Valent has done an excellent job building its LCO business, but there’s a lot of potential and opportunity for the future. I’m excited to be the architect for what happens next.”


Marquardt, who graduated from the University of Manitoba with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, most recently served as branch manager for ValleyCrest Landscape Companies in Fort Pierce, Fla. Prior to that, he was a district manager for Austin Outdoor on Florida’s Treasure Coast and a senior superintendent and project director for The Brickman Group in Broward and Palm Beach counties.


“I’ve worked in every single section of the east coast of Florida. When I saw this job description, it felt like it was written for me,” Marquardt said. “I love landscaping and horticulture, but I was trained to work in a more technical area and this provides me with the opportunity to do that.


Marquardt, who once traded frosty winters in the Great White North for a nursery and landscaping job in the Turks & Caicos Islands, has the depth and breadth of professional experience Valent was looking for when it created this new position, said Dr. Mike Riffle, Valent Professional Products national sales and market development manager.


“This is a new position in our group and will be vitally important for us as we continue to expand our best-in-class LCO business,” Riffle said. “Rod has extensive experience in the LCO market segment and he has worked closely with a number of our products—including Safari® Insecticide, Arena® Insecticide and SureGuard® Herbicide—in the past. His combination of industry experience and familiarity with our product line makes him an ideal fit for this important new position, in which he’ll be working with our largest accounts and exploring opportunities to grow the business.”