Scotts Miracle-Gro announced Monday morning that Jim Hagedorn, 70, has stepped down from his positions as CEO and board chair.
Hagedorn worked at the Marysville-based company for nearly 40 years. He served as the company's CEO for the past 25 years.
Also, the company said that Chief Financial Officer Nate Baxter, 53, will succeed Hagedorn as CEO, effective immediately. Baxter joined the company in 2023, after Hagedorn recruited him to be his successor.
The board elected Pete Shumlin to replace Hagedorn as board chair.
Shumlin previously served as the governor of Vermont from 2011 to 2017.
Shumlin was previously on the board of directors at FLUENT, a vertically-integrated cannabis firm. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s former cannabis investment subsidiary, the Hawthorne Collective, owns a stake in FLUENT.
The company did not give a specific reason for Hagedorn’s departure.
“Our company is in a really good place. We've had a couple of tough years post-COVID, where we were in financial straits, and Jim helped us dig out of that,” Scotts Miracle-Gro spokesperson Tim Matthews told WOSU. “I think that the timing was right. We got out of those challenging times and we're back to growth.”
Matthews added Hagedorn’s departure followed a succession plan the board created shortly after Baxter joined the company.
This leadership change comes after Scotts Miracle-Gro gave $1 million to the National Park Service to restore the White House South Lawn after a UFC event was held there on June 14. The company also offered technical support from its research and development team.
