User:Namekal/U.S. Pest Protection

U.S. Pest Protection, Inc. is a family-owned company based in the Nashville, Tennessee metropolitan area that provides residential and commercial pest control services. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Hendersonville, Tennessee. It has regional offices in Nashville and throughout middle Tennessee.

History
U.S. Pest Protection was founded by Sam Peden with his wife Sheryl in 1985. In 2010, Peden’s daughter Erica Brister assumed leadership as CEO of the company, with the elder Peden continuing in semi-retirement as CFO. Brister, who came into the business with a degree in Photography and Broadcast Journalism from Emerson College, announced that the company would take a human-centered, environmentally responsible approach to pest control. The company's annual revenues grew by 228% over the first ten years of her period as CEO.

Under Brister’s leadership, the company expanded its research operations with the hiring of Board Certified entomologist Ron Schwalb as corporate technical director in 2015. In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced the expansion of its operations to include a new service called Virocleanse, which provides antiviral disinfecting of commercial workspaces.

Environmental Policy
U.S. Pest has declared its commitment to practices for the protection of honeybee colonies against colony collapse disorder (including favoring use of non-neonicotinoid pesticides) and is the founder and primary sponsor of the annual Tennessee Honey Festival. Founded after Brister developed a personal interest in beekeeping, the annual festival is dedicated to public awareness, education, and celebration of honey and the preservation of honeybee populations.

Industry Involvement
U.S. Pest Protection is a member of the Tennessee Pest Control Association (TPCA) and the National Pest Management Association. The company is a sponsor of the Nashville Predators NHL team.

In 2019, The Nashville Business Journal named U.S. Pest Protection one of its top twenty-five family-owned businesses by revenue.