[2008 Leadership Profiles] Mark 'Shep' Sheperdigian

It doesn’t take long to realize that Mark “Shep” Sheperdigian, vice president of technical services, Rose Pest Solutions, truly has a passion for what he does. “Have you ever been bitten by a bed bug?” an excited Sheperdigian asks. “Would you like to? We could do that today. Then you could go home with that experience.”

Of course, Sheperdigian wasn’t asking this reporter to do anything that he hasn’t done himself. Earlier this year, Sheperdigian and coworkers conducted just that experiment. “Oh, it was great,” Sheperdigian recalled. “We watched as they walked across our hands, watched (as we were being bitten) as the little red flower bloom in its head filled up with blood, and then watched them disengage.”

Sheperdigian was happy to report that all but one person in this exercise had no reaction — everyone except, you guessed it…Shep. “I itched for the next couple hours and then I itched for the next couple weeks.

Oh well, all in the name of science, Sheperdigian explained. “It’s the insatiable curiosity. You gotta know how you are going to react. You gotta to learn the insect, you gotta watch the insect. So, you collect them in jars and you feed them. You want to see how they feed. Does the bite hurt? Is it like a mosquito bite? Is it like a flea bite?”
 
It’s that same zest for learning and teaching, along with extraordinary communications skills and an eye for detail, that have made Sheperdigian one of the most well respected technical/training directors in the pest control industry for the past 25 years.

SCIENCE IN HIS DNA. In many ways, it was only natural that Sheperdigian ended up working in the sciences. His parents, father Ara and mother Barbara, are both scientists who met while working on the Polio Project at the Parke-Davis Research Laboratory in Detroit.

Ara eventually became a physician and the family settled in Mount Pleasant, Mich. The Sheperdigians were outdoor enthusiasts and through activities such as camping trips, encouraged Mark and his four siblings to also enjoy nature.

Sheperdigian did indeed take a liking to nature and one of his childhood idols was underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau. So much so, in fact, that Sheperdigian’s first career interest was marine biology. After high school, he enrolled at Michigan State University with that goal in mind. But those plans changed after taking an introductory entomology course at Michigan State in 1978. “It opened up a whole new world for me. I was fascinated by the different variety of insects, how they functioned and just what their role in the world was.”

Sheperdigian credits MSU professors Dr. Roland Fisher and Dr. Fred Stehr for turning him onto entomology. After his sophomore year, Sheperdigian took a year off, moving to Waterville, Maine, where he participated in an outreach program for biblical research and the teaching ministry. It was at this program that Sheperdigian met his future wife, Nancy.

Sheperdigian returned to Michigan State, where he graduated in 1982 with a B.S. in entomology. At the time, few pest management companies had training/technical directors, so it would have been understandable had Sheperdigian taken a different career path. But Sheperdigian never looked back. “If you look at most people who are at the top of their profession, they put in the long hours of research and studying not because they have to, but because they have the passion. There are no grandmasters out there who are indifferent about their profession. The second piece of advice I would give is: Don’t worry about whether or not the profession you have chosen will make you money. If you are good at what you do, there will be room for you.”

Following graduation, Sheperdigian had his sights set on graduate school, and moved to Athens, Ga., to enroll at the University of Georgia. “Instead of going through normal channels, I decided to move there first and live there to establish residency and thereby reduce the cost, but it was not to be. I never made it to grad school.”

Early post-graduate vocations in Georgia included waiting tables and pumping gas. “I wrote letters home and signed them ‘Your son the gas station attendant.’”

Eventually, Sheperdigian was able to make some inroads into the pest control industry, beginning in 1983, when he was hired by Ernest Boland, at Athens, Ga.-based Boland Pest Control. There, Sheperdigian gained valuable experience running a route and later as a pest control manager.

Wanting to move back to the Midwest, Sheperdigian left Boland in 1984, to fill an opening at Pest Control Services Co. of Indianapolis (PESCO). The company, which was founded by Dr. Lee Truman,was formerly owned by Dan and Bonnie Everts. At PESCO, Sheperdigian was a jack-of-all-trades, serving in a variety of positions from technician to supervisor to sales representative. “They are a great company and Dan really did me a great favor by introducing me to a lot of people who were real movers and shakers in the industry.” Sheperdigian said. “I was really able to learn a lot about pest management while I was there.”

TIME FOR A CHANGE. Sheperdigian worked at Pest Control Services of Indianapolis from 1984 through 1986. While Sheperdigian enjoyed his time at PESCO, he realized that for his own professional growth he would need to work for a large, regional company that could provide him with both challenges and opportunities. It just so happened that in late 1986 Rose Pest Solutions President Russ Ives (who at the time was vice president) was looking to fill such a position. Ives was serving on a board in Lansing with Dr. Jim Bath, who at the time was the head of Michigan State’s entomology department. Bath recommended Sheperdigian.

“It’s funny but one day I said, ‘God, I need a new job, but I’m not sure how to go about this.’ That night I got a call from a man I did not know (Ives) and he said, ‘I understand you are an entomologist. We are looking for an entomologist,’” Sheperdigian recalled.

In addition to the opportunities this job opening would give him to grow as an urban entomologist, the position appealed to Sheperdigian because it allowed him to move back to his home state of Michigan. On Jan. 2, 1987, Sheperdigian officially began working for Rose Pest Solutions. In his early days at Rose, Sheperdigian was in charge of providing support, solving problems, evaluating products, conducting training and acting as a liaison between chemical manufacturers and management.

Throughout the years, Sheperdigian’s role has evolved as significant changes have occurred not only within Rose Pest Solutions, but throughout the industry as a whole. For example, when Sheperdigian arrived at Rose, cockroaches were still the industry’s “bread and butter” and the conventional treatment involved massive cleanouts using compressed air sprayers and dusts. Gradually the industry moved more to IPM-based cockroach control programs that involve the use of baits and targeted applications. Rose Pest Solutions relies heavily on Sheperdigian’s expertise and insights when making these types of changes to its service offerings.

“He’s a person whom I rely on in major ways with respect to any technical developments, with respect to any discussions we have on protocols that should be instituted, and with respect to any quality assurance measures and initiatives we undertake,” said Ives. “He always has a unique perspective and a unique way to state his opinion.”
Sheperdigian, in turn, relies heavily upon his colleagues (who also are his good friends) on the Copesan Technical Committee (CTC), a group consisting of technical directors from leading pest management firms across North America. Sheperdigian considers the CTC to be the ultimate “sounding board” for ideas. “It’s a group of people who represent the most complete resources a person could have,” he said. “They have so many varied experiences among them from coast to coast that if you have a question not only do they have an answer but they have an experience to share.”

As Rose Pest Solutions has grown and changed, so too have Sheperdigian’s responsibilities. Sheperdigian estimates he spends 10-15 percent of his time in the field, which might involve client support or troubleshooting a difficult account. “Shep has a great ability to carefully assess situations, to understand a client’s concerns and works towards solutions that benefit them, but in a way that are responsible to our business,” Ives said.

When not in the field or giving presentations at events such as the Purdue Pest Management Conference, Sheperdigian is working closely with others in the company’s technical department — Gene White, director of education and training; Dick Murdock, quality control inspector; Dale Hodgson, regional technical supervisor and Jami Guenther, regional technical and quality representatives — as well as all of the company’s district supervisors (20 total).

“His attitude towards others in the company and towards clients is always one that’s cheerful,” said White. “He’s always got something fun to say, fun to do. He enjoys life and enjoys his work. That one attribute rubs off on people and they, in turn, love calling up here and getting information. He also has a great communicative ability to talk with people at all levels from technicians to people with Ph.D’s.”

One of the district supervisors who Sheperdigian has helped mentor is Andy Murdock, who has been with Rose for 11 years and has been a supervisor for eight of those years. Murdock said he’ll confer with Sheperdigian for any number of reasons ranging from Sheperdigian’s opinion on how to treat a difficult account to his feedback on a presentation Murdock created for teaching technicians the proper use of pesticides. “Anytime you work with Shep his attitude is 100 percent positive. We do volunteer work at the Children’s Home of Detroit and one Saturday we were out there and it was raining and I said, ‘Well, what are we going to do?’ to which Shep responded, ‘I don’t know, but it’s still a great day to be out here.’ He’s always just very happy go lucky.”

Added Ives, “Shep has an unfailingly positive attitude and approach to life.  Almost anytime you run into Shep, and ask how it is going, he will respond, ‘Fantastic!’  He is a real believer in the idea that our attitude determines our outcomes, and takes a wonderfully optimistic approach to life. ‘We can do this’ is a common closing remark from Shep when we close out a meeting on a project. It is one of the characteristics that make it a joy to work with him.”

A PERFECT FIT. Perhaps the reason Sheperdigian is always so cheerful, or at least is able to give the appearance of being up-beat, is because he truly appreciates his profession and that his position at Rose Pest Solutions has provided him with what he calls a “grand view of pest management.”

“This is a fabulous place for an urban entomologist. I get to interface with manufacturers and (along with the other Copesan Technical Committee members) give suggestions on products. We’ve also had an opportunity to visit universities, ranging from Harvard to UC-Riverside and everything in-between.

“It’s been gratifying to help people solve their problems. It’s been gratifying to put on presentations that people find useful and that might help them do pest management better. Pest management is about people and it is about insects and those are my two favorite subjects.” 

Mark Sheperdigian at a Glance

• Vice President of Technical Services, Rose Pest Solutions (1987-current)
• Technician, sales, supervisor, Pest Control Services Co. of Indianapolis (PESCO) (1984-1986)
• Technician and manager, Boland Pest Control, Athens, Ga. (1983)
• B.S. in Entomology from Michigan State University (1982)
• Member of the Project Development Technical Committee for the National Pest Management Association
• Member and past chairman of the Copesan Technical Committee
• Frequent industry speaker at meetings such as the Purdue Pest Management Conference, NPMA PestWorld and various state association meetings

What Others Are Saying

“Shep relates well to service technicians. Despite his extensive experience and travels delivering training and interacting with manufacturers and the research community, Shep is realistic and down to earth, always ready and willing to learn from others, as well as to instruct and teach. This attitude and demeanor is a characteristic that makes him an effective technical director for Rose.” — Richard Berman, technical manager, Waltham Services, Waltham, Mass.
 
“Shep is a great communicator and has a unique way of presenting information in training programs and technical presentations. He uses both his sense of humor and a unique perspective on a technical subject to keep the audience interested and engaged.  He’s got brain power! He’s also a great taxonomist. He’s very detailed oriented and will make sure that a project is completed properly and above expectations.” — Pat Hottel, technical director, McCloud Services, Chicago

“Years of hands-on experience, communication skills, and a sense of humor let Shep communicate effectively with technicians, sales people, and administrators alike. This suite of attributes also lets him communicate effectively with researchers, manufacturers, and fellow technical directors, to ask probing questions and offer guidance.” — Eric Smith, technical services director, Dodson Bros., Lynchburg, Va.
 
“The Copesan Technical Committee (CTC) could not be as productive or as supportive of Copesan without Shep’s contributions. Every cog in the CTC wheel is critical but if CTC lost Shep, the wheel would certainly not work as well. He keeps discussions on track, volunteers for difficult projects, provides important information, considers the needs of others, and stays positive.” — Jim Sargent, technical director, Copesan corporate entomologist, Menomonee Falls, Wis.

Shep Fun Facts

When Shep is away from the office, he enjoys spending time with Nancy, his wife of 28 years, and his two sons who are in college, Ara (age 23) and Zach (19). Shep also has several interesting hobbies, including:

• Bug Collecting — Shep’s collection recently was expanded following a trip to South Africa this summer
• Biblical research
• Woodworking — The hobby which he plans to make his retirement career
• Growing hot peppers
• Cigars — Shep is a cigar enthusiast