The 2026 PMP Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony took place Oct. 19 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. This year’s inductees are Mark Boyd, founder of Control Solutions Inc.; Bobby, Raleigh and Dennis Jenkins of ABC Home & Commercial Services; Frank Meek of Rollins; and the late Gene White of Rentokil. Visit the PMP Hall of Fame website.
Mark Boyd is a second-generation pest management professional (PMP) who went on to found Control Solutions Inc. (CSI), a hybrid manufacturer offering a broad portfolio of post-patent and innovative products across pest control, turf and ornamental, animal health and consumer markets.
After more than three decades in the pest management industry, the world-class innovator and visionary retired from CSI on Sept. 1, 2025. Scratch that; he hasn’t fully retired. Currently, Boyd is working as a consultant, helping a few companies structure their businesses for growth.
Starting young
It’s not easy to leave an industry you grew up in.
For Boyd, it all started in 1958, the year he was born. Boyd’s grandfather helped his father, Richard, purchase an existing company called Ford’s Pest Control in Pasadena, Texas. Back then, the small business earned $15,000 in revenue each year.
“It came with one pickup and one technician, RV Davenport,” Boyd recalls. “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not exist at the time, and RV taught my dad how to mix the chemicals we used.”
Ten years later, not only was his father mixing chemicals for his pest control business, but he was also selling the products to consumers and PMPs out of a small storefront.
“My two brothers and I worked with my dad weekends, summers and afternoons after school, making the products and bottling them,” Boyd says.
As the only son interested in the business and a career in the pest control industry, Boyd stuck with it. His identical twin brother went on to become an anesthesiologist in Houston, Texas, and his older brother teaches at the Houston Community College, now known as Houston City College.
Boyd and his father transformed Ford’s Pest Control into a successful formulation and distribution company, and in 1976, renamed the company Ford’s Chemical and Service.
As the decade came to a close, Boyd enrolled at Texas A&M to study chemical engineering. By his sophomore year, however, he set out on a different path.
“With encouragement from my dad, I switched majors and received a degree in entomology,” he says. “My dream at the time was to get married, work extremely hard and try to make $1 million by the time I reached 30.”
One by one, Boyd realized his dreams. He and his wife, Marilyn, married in December 1979 while in their senior year at Texas A&M. They met in high school and had their first date at age 15. Their son, Blake, is 43; their daughter, Kristen, is 38, and they have five grandchildren.
In 1982, at age 24, Boyd graduated from Texas A&M and joined his father in the business full-time. The company consisted of about six trucks for the pest control service business, a small formulation facility and a retail storefront.
“A few years later I was introduced to Mel Goldberg, who was representing Makhteshim Agan Industries in the United States, and we started buying diazinon and chlorpyrifos from Israel,” Boyd says. “The relationship flourished, and every year Ford’s Chemical became a bigger company.”
Forging ahead
In 1989, Boyd and his father sold the business to Roussel UCLAF. The deal came with a three-year contract to run Roussel Non Crop in the United States. After Boyd’s contract expired, he left the company and immediately started over by launching CSI.
“We had a few years of not formulating and producing any product due to the non-compete agreement,” Boyd says. “But by 1995, CSI was off and running.”
Then tragedy struck. In 2004, a fire broke out in CSI’s manufacturing facility. No one was hurt, but the building and its contents were destroyed.
“I made a strategic decision for CSI to partner with Adama, an Israeli [agricultural chemical] company,” he says. “The partnership lasted 22 years and was very successful.”
In fact, the business grew every year; revenue started at $57 million and has grown to $275 million. Even more impressive, according to Boyd, the company’s gross margin percentage also grew.
“None of this would have been possible without the trust and respect the partners had for each other. We supported each other’s wishes and visions well,” he says. “I have tremendous pride in the team of people that has been assembled to run the complex Adama Consumer & Professional business. It is the best team in our industry by far, and the future of the company is very bright.”
Fulfilling a need
Over the years, CSI transitioned from a post-patent pest control solutions formulator to a hybrid supplier with a stable of novel products. The company has brought to market such innovative products as dry flowable baits, a patented Precision Delivery System, as well as encapsulated and pressurized solutions.
Pest management is just one of CSI’s product lines. Others target golf and turf, consumers and production animal. It also provides technical and custom solutions.
“I am truly blessed for the experience I had working with a great partner and very smart people at CSI over the years,” Boyd says. “I cannot imagine a more fruitful life doing anything else.”
Anyone who has visited CSI’s headquarters cannot help but notice the showroom and office featuring more than 120 animal trophies from three continents and numerous countries. Every animal was acquired on family hunting trips, except for the Bengal tiger, which was a gift.
“My father retired after the sale to Roussel, and he immediately planned a trip to Africa to hunt,” Boyd explains. “My 8-year-old son and I went with him. Many of the animals seen in the front office came from that hunting trip to Namibia.”
Thirty years later, Boyd took his son and his 8-year-old grandson to Zimbabwe. “My son shot a 16-foot crocodile, and I hunted for 10 days to get a leopard.” On this trip, his grandson shot his first animal: a springbok, just like his dad did when they were in Namibia. According to Boyd, both catches were eaten a day later for dinner.
Like most hunters, Boyd had the focus, confidence and patience to make a killing in the pest management industry. He is quick to credit his family, partners and colleagues.
“The pest management industry was and is the foundation of CSI,” he adds. “The people in this industry have made my working years very special for me.”
Sofranec can be reached at dsofranec@northcoastmedia.net or 440-773-6337.
<p>The post PMP Hall of Fame profile: Mark Boyd first appeared on Pest Management Professional.</p>
from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/ipmp-i-hall-of-fame-profile-mark-boyd/
Sacramento CA
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