Gro Alliance Promotes Jarrod Cowan to Nursery Services Site Lead; Jim McCormick to Retire in December 2021

Gro Alliance announces it has promoted Jarrod Cowan to nursery services site lead for its Mount Pulaski, IL nursery station.  Jarrod takes the reigns from Jim McCormick who will retire in December of 2021.

 Cowan started at Mount Pulaski in 2002 and has held numerous nursery positions during his 19 years at the site.  Since Gro Alliance acquired the site from Bo-Jac Seed Company in 2013, Jarrod has helped lead the introduction of drip irrigation, expansion into sweet corn nursery services and continuous improvement efforts focused on purity and seed quality.

“Jarrod’s local connections and experience in Mount Pulaski have been instrumental in accessing high quality land with outstanding isolation for nursery projects of all types,” said Marc Neuman, director of nursery services and business development.  “Having an extended training period under the leadership of Jim McCormick has been invaluable to ensuring a smooth transition.  He’s an incredibly skilled technician and is a fantastic choice to lead the site.”

Gro Alliance also announces that Jim McCormick, foundation services lead, will retire in December of 2021.  McCormick stared with the Bo-Jac Seed Company in Mount Pulaski as a detasseling crew leader in 1972.  Since 1990 he’s executed nursery projects by focusing on communication and focusing on the details.

“Jim has always put his heart and soul into his work,” said Jim Schweigert, president of Gro Alliance.  “From marking out isolations to training Jarrod to take over, his passion and focus on doing the best job possible has always shown through.  He is honestly one of the best humans I know and will be truly missed.”

McCormick says that he will miss working nursery projects and evaluating plants to select the best ones for selfing and crossing.  

“Knowing how important our work was for the clients gave me great satisfaction, said McCormick. “I won’t miss the muddy and hot days, but I will miss the relationships with our clients and nursery team.  How much trust our clients put in our team meant a lot to me and that will be missed as well.”