Ending 2025 with a bang at the Syngenta Business Institute

The golf industry had a strong end to 2025 thanks to multiple events dedicated to professional growth and networking spread throughout December. 

Green Start Academy’s 20th anniversary at Pinehurst kicked off to help upcoming leaders grow in the industry, and our very own Golfdom Summit provided a handful of superintendents, industry partners, manufacturers and distributors the chance to network over the course of a few days in Orlando. 

But another event also took center stage, looking to help superintendents grow on a personal and professional level in ways not often taught at other industry events: the Syngenta Business Institute. 

“I so often hear people say, ‘This is the best education I’ve ever got,’ and I think part of it is because it’s been very different than what has traditionally been offered in the industry,” says Mark LaFleur, communications lead for turf and landscape at Syngenta. “This is an opportunity to give them those skills that have been lacking in this industry.”

The 17th annual Syngenta Business Institute (SBI) kicked off in early December at the luxurious Graylyn Estate in Winston-Salem, N.C., offering a week for 25 supers to step away from the agronomy, the turf and the products they are surrounded with. Instead, classes were held on more personal skills such as work/life balance, leading across cultural/generational differences, negotiating, decision making and more. 

Classes are taught by top professors from the Wake Forest University School of Business and pull from years of research. Amy Wallis, Ph.D., full professor of practice in organizational behavior, says she loves teaching the supers at SBI because not only are they passionate and eager, but they are quick to go to each other for help. 

“I don’t like to stand up and lecture at them,” Wallis says. “They are so experienced already that it’s more about finding ways to pull their best thinking together and to help them to learn from one another. I get excited every year when I’m asked to come in.” 

Class is in session

After the initial welcome reception on the first evening, classes began the next morning with Julie Wayne, Ph.D., professor in the Wake Forest University School of Business. Her class on work/life balance investigated how much time superintendents were spending on different aspects of their lives, and through peer discussions and interactive activities, she found ways to help the group find a bit more balance on what’s important to them.

“We tend to heavily overinvest in work,” Wayne said during her class. “Balance is investing time and energy relative to how important it is to us.”

After that, Wallis ran through her first class: “Leading Across Cultures and Generations.” In this highly interactive course, Wallis examined the impact of cultural and generational differences on one’s work life, discussed the various types of differences and found ways to improve communication across these gaps. 

If this isn’t the first Golfdom recap of SBI you’ve read, you might recall that this class is where a popular card game is played amongst the attendees to really hone in on the lessons learned, and while the details will be saved for those that attend in the future, it’s easy to say that there was a lot of fun, learning and, especially, chaos that happened during this activity. 

“I think you can take almost everything back to the course, even just meeting everybody in here, it’s been fun,” said Matt McKinnon, director of golf course maintenance at The Legacy Courses (Minn.) at Craguns. “A lot of guys have a lot of great experiences and stuff, and it seems like every bit of the material that they’ve shown us is worthwhile and easily taken back to the golf course and used.”

Becoming a confident leader

Wallis continued the education with a class on influencing and negotiating skills, something that is key to a superintendent’s skillset. After reviewing some of the common tactics people can use and when they are most effective, Wallis had the class do a few fun activities; one involving trying to strike some business deals with a partner when given different scenarios, and one even revolving around arm wrestling (you’ll just have to see it to believe it, but it was definitely entertaining to watch). 

The second class of the day was taught by Sherry Moss, Ph.D., professor of organizational studies. Her class on managing individuals and teams focused heavily on giving the right kinds of feedback and instructions to get the best out of employees. This peer-discussion-heavy course was a hit with attendees, and it was great to see many superintendents realize they had plenty to practice and improve in in their day-to-day operations. 

“Focused education — specifically on leadership — it’s invaluable because that’s what the majority of our jobs are these days; to lead your entire crew or just your assistants and things like that.” says Jake Gargasz, superintendent of Crooked Stick Golf Club in Indiana. “We can all use help in that aspect. People skills are always going to be the thing that we need to focus on, because that’s primarily what our day is.” 

An easy decision

The last class of the event came from Moss, who presented key information on executive decision making. What made this class special was that the learning module it used was designed by one of the world’s leading experts on leadership: Victor Vroom, Ph.D., of Yale University. 

On top of the lessons taught by Moss, the attendees also got to submit a pre-assignment before the event took place to Yale, allowing them to receive even further feedback and educational resources based on their responses. 

“I think the Wake Forest professors do a really good job of challenging superintendents to think differently,” Syngenta’s LaFleur says. “And at the end of every session, we ask them, ‘What are you going to implement?’ And hearing those things that they decide that they want to implement back into the course is one of the things that’s rewarding to me — to see we are making a difference.”

A good way to end the year

Outside of the educational sessions, Syngenta hosted a handful of other events to keep the networking opportunities flowing. 

On the second night, attendees were treated to a night out with dinner and duckpin bowling. On night three, roundtable discussions were held on a variety of topics, allowing superintendents to choose which areas they wanted more guidance on and to connect further with like-minded colleagues. 

“Those roundtables were really something that I would say was my favorite because when you can engage with 15 or 10 (superintendents) in the group, and everyone was able to share their own experience, I got so many ideas that I’m going to try implementing in our course,” says Vanja Drasler, superintendent at Montclair (N.J.) Golf Club. 

And now, as 2026 arrives and the new year begins, the Syngenta and Wake Forest team are hoping that this newest group of industry leaders can take their upcoming challenges head on and maybe have a few more friends they can rely on along the way. 

“I know that a lot of the folks who go through this class stay in touch with each other and continue to consult with each other, and they now have a shared language and skill set for doing that,” says Wake Forest’s Wallis. “That’s why we try to make sure that there are social events and that we mix people up a lot in the program, so they get to know one another better.”

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