WHO WE ARE
About Us
Catalyst is a group of highly proficient and technical professionals focused on delivering top quality restoration to meet our clients’ needs. We are a legal public benefit corporation, and we believe companies can and need to be a force for good for our communities to face the challenges in front of them. Rather than the outdated discussion of choosing economy or environment, we believe that intelligent solutions deliver both for our clients and communities, and we are the catalyst that makes that happen.
Our Approach to Restoration
We bring together clients, community partners, non-profits, and government organizations to problem-solve complex natural resource issues with a win-win approach and results that are greater than the sum of the individual parts. At Catalyst, our technical depth and operational expertise allow us to choose the right tools for each project and client. We constantly strive to push the boundaries of our own thoughts and understanding, improve our implementation efficiency, and advance the science and applied practice of our chosen trade.
Our Values:
A Note from Our Founder
Passion for What We Do
My grandfather was a Navy pilot in World War II. After the war, he flew commercially for Trans World Airlines (TWA), one of the premiere international airlines of its day. When I was growing up, he always told me that he never had to work a day in his life, he always went to the airport and got to fly airplanes. That message resonated with me; from then on, I knew I wanted to spend my life doing something I loved. The other thing I knew growing up was that I had the most fun doing two activities: building things and growing things. I was happiest when I was in the creek by my house covered in mud and building little dams out of sticks, or watering my potted trees in the impromptu native nursery that sprang up in my back yard from seeds I found in the woods and planted. Fast forward to college, where I first learned of a thing called “ecological restoration,” where I could re-build and grow entire ecosystems, and I was hooked. At Catalyst, we strive to keep a culture where people can have, keep, and grow a strong passion for what they do.
Albert Charles Vande Velde
(1921-2008)
Safety
I have been on a job site when the foreman for one of my sub-contractors had to tell his team that one of their colleagues had died on a different site. At that moment, I knew I never wanted to have to deliver that news to someone’s team members, spouse, parents or child. At Catalyst, we may love what we do, but the most important things in our lives are the people and communities we go home to at the end of the day, and we do everything we can to make sure everyone goes home to them at the end of every day.
Team Member Focus
I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to work for a couple of really amazing companies during the first part of my career. At each company, I had the chance to learn from truly talented and inspiring people, see some great business practices in motion, and also see some business practices I thought were best left behind.
At the core of what I’ve carried with me from that journey is that Catalyst is—and needs to remain—a company that is focused on its team members. We want to hire great people, hold them accountable to extremely high professional standards and our company values, give them the tools and support they need to do their jobs, and then give them the space to be the rock stars they are.
