Black Ownership Matters Establishes Wayne Golden Leadership and Action Scholarship

WASHINGTON — The Black Ownership Matters (BOM) organization made a special announcement at their annual dinner meeting at NPMA’s Legislative Day in Washington, D.C., to share the establishment of the Wayne Golden Leadership and Action Scholarship.

Golden joined the dinner via FaceTime to hear the announcement of the scholarship that will carry on the strong impact and legacy he’s made on the pest control industry.

The $1,000 annual scholarship will be crowdfunded by multiple people through the Pest Management Foundation, Neighborly Pest Management President Jim Steed said. “I know how many people love Wayne and have been helped by him during his time in pest control, and I wanted to give everyone the chance to be [financially] a part of this,” he said.

While Golden has had a long, distinguished career both at Orkin and Terminix, in many ways he has been a behind-the-scenes contributor, heavily focused on operations and content to let others have the spotlight. Golden recently retired from a long career at Rollins as assistant vice president of government relations.

PCT spoke with Golden on the recognition of this scholarship, and he said when he heard the news during the BOM dinner, he was “surprised, honored and emotional.”

“The reason I got involved in BOM after my retirement was not to build my legacy, but to share my knowledge. Even though business practices have changed, running a good business model has not changed,” Golden said.

While the final criteria for the scholarship still needs to be finalized, Golden said he hopes the scholarship can be geared toward supporting mentorship and networking in the small-business community, preferably BOM members.

“I want the scholarship to enhance the minority community within the pest control industry; that’s one of the reasons why I got involved with BOM is to try and get more people of color involved in the pest control industry,” he said. “I go back to 1973 when I joined the industry, there was no learning process or mentorship. You just learned by doing and making mistakes, so if I could pass that knowledge down to others, then I think that will be a good step in helping others understand their business.”

Golden also hopes to reach entomology students with this new scholarship to bring more diverse talent to the industry.