Our People

Our favorite compliment is hearing that Lawn Butler employs great people. Our team is made up of dedicated, skilled, and passionate professionals who bring both expertise and care to every project. Safety and integrity guide everything we do, and we always prioritize doing what’s right for our clients over cutting corners or chasing profit.

Every employee receives thorough onboarding, ongoing education, and consistent safety training—because when our people grow, our customers benefit. With more than 150 years of combined experience, our management team is committed to positioning Lawn Butler for long-term success. We are fully licensed, insured, and state certified, and we look forward to serving you here in Knoxville.

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Martha Petri

Accounting

Martha, an Auburn, New York native and Davenport, Iowa transplant, started at Lawn Butler in April 2024 in the accounting department. Martha and Dan, her husband of 32 years, wanted to escape the tornadoes and cold winters of Iowa and set their sights on Knoxville, TN as their next chapter. Martha has over 30 years of accounting experience, and 25 of those years in the construction trades. Martha brings a fresh perspective on organization and procedures to the accounting department. Martha and Dan have two grown children who currently live in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Meanwhile Martha and Dan are enjoying being “tourists in their backyard” and experiencing all that the Knoxville area has to offer in sightseeing, hiking, restaurants and entertainment. In her spare time, Martha enjoys sewing, listening to live music, having a midwestern accent, and spending time with family and friends.

Michelle Stallings

Office Administrator

Michelle, an East Tennessee native, brings over 20 years of experience in office administration and excellent customer service to the team. As the friendly voice you'll

often hear when you call, she’s always ready to help in any way she can. Outside the office, Michelle enjoys gardening (though her plants might question her abilities), cooking, and discovering new gems at local bookstores. While her garden might not win any prizes, it’s filled with love and the occasional plant that somehow survives against all odds. Michelle’s easygoing nature and willingness to help make her a great support to both the team and our clients.

Adrianna Durham

Construction Operations Manager

Adrianna, a lifelong resident of East Tennessee, joined the Lawn Butler team as an Administrative Assistant for the Construction Division in 2021. One of Adrianna’s greatest contributions to Lawn Butler is being an unstoppable goalie during Lawn Butler's biannual company soccer games. When she isn’t aiding in the daily operations of the Construction team or planning company events, Adrianna enjoys spending time outdoors with her family, tending to her vegetable garden, and investing hundreds of dollars each month maintaining her flock of chickens for the “free” eggs.

Dana Rathke

Marketing and Irrigation Operations Assistant

Dana, originally from Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan, relocated to Tennessee in the summer of 2024. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Marketing and a minor in Entrepreneurship from Kent State University. With over five years of experience in marketing and project coordination, Dana plays a key role in supporting Lawn Butler’s marketing strategies and irrigation operations. She assists with social media management, content creation, and administrative support, ensuring smooth operations for the irrigation team. Outside of work, Dana enjoys art, outdoor activities, watersports, and spending time with her family.

Brian Sprowl

Maintenance Operations Manager

Brian is a Knoxville native who played baseball at Shelton State Community College and Tennessee Tech University. He started with Lawn Butler as a maintenance laborer in 2009 and now serves as the Maintenance Operations Manager. Nicknamed "Turbo" for the way he tackles projects like they owe him money, Brian doesn’t quit until the job is done. As Lawn Butler's go-to guy for operating software, he’s never met a spreadsheet he didn’t love. Brian is passionate about promoting the green industry and leading the team, especially when it comes to safety and training days. He’s married to Heather, and they have three children. When he’s not busy making properties look like works of art, he enjoys spending time outdoors with his family. Oh, and he absolutely loves staring at the stars. His humor and care for people shine through in everything he does.

Patrick Johnson

Maintenance Client Representative

Patrick, a Knoxville native, came to the Lawn Butler in 2018, bringing over twenty years of experience in the Green Industry. He has served as a customer representative for over ten years. Patrick has been serving as Operations Manager for Lawn Butler and will now be your Client Representative. His fondness for nature and his desire to create led him to the landscaping industry in his early twenties. Patrick has logged over three hundred miles of hiking in the Smoky Mountains, spent a week solo on the Appalachian Trail, and loves to travel with his wife, Meaghan. They have been married for over 20 years and visited locations from Easter Island to Kathmandu. In his spare time, he seeks the most authentic ethnic restaurants to press his luck on trying new foods.

Brandon Burnett

Maintenance Client Representative

Brandon, a lifelong Knoxville resident, has been with Lawn Butler since 2014. He started as a foreman in the hardscape division before moving into his current position as a maintenance account representative. Brandon has been married to his wife Shannon for eighteen years and can almost field a basketball roster with their four kids. Brandon enjoys golfing when he can and coaching his kids in the various sports they play. If you want to find him when he’s not working your best bet is to start searching baseball and soccer fields across the southeast.

Mark Simpson

Maintenance Client Representative

Mark grew up in Maryville, Tennessee, and has over 20 years of expertise in the landscape industry. From general lawn care to golf course management, Mark has tackled a wide variety of the green industry. Mark spent his first four years with Lawn Butler as an enhancement crew leader, providing solutions for varying jobs for Lawn Butler's customers. Mark enjoys hobbies such as golf, fishing, boxing, and spending as much time as possible with friends and family. A little known fact about Mark is that he consumes enough twizzlers in a day to satisfy the dessert requirement for an entire kindergarten class party.

Coming Soon

Maintenance Production Manager

Coming Soon.

Devin Holbert

Maintenance Production Manager

Devin grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started with Lawn Butler as a maintenance laborer in 2017 and is a Maintenance Production Manager. Devin consistently ensures that work runs smoothly at Lawn Butler while also maintaining a positive relationship with customers. While quiet and intimidating at first glance, he is one of the friendliest guys around to both his coworkers and customers. When he isn't working, Devin can be found hunting, fishing, or farming.

Alex Kent

Turf Care and Tree & Shrub Manager

Alex, a Cortland, New York native with a background in agriculture, joined Lawn Butler in 2019 as a Lawn Care Technician. He takes a lot of pride in the quality of his work and became the Lawn Care Manager,  aka "Grass Daddy," in 2024. Alex works hard to make sure his customers are happy, and their grass is green. He also puts a lot of effort into making sure his technicians are well-trained and share his passion for turf and plant healthcare. In his free time, Alex likes to spend time with his wife and daughters, talk about plants, cook, and talk about plants some more. Alex is personally offended by the phrase, "the grass is greener on the other side," unless the other side is also a Lawn Butler Property.

Mike Huenefeld

Landscape Construction Division Manager

Mike was raised in Washington State, with an agricultural background spanning from greenhouses to apples. Looking to expand his horizons, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard and served 7 years in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Boston, he met and married Claire, whom he deemed Knoxville’s most beautiful woman, and decided to relocate to Tennessee. Using the GI Bill, he graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in civil engineering. Upon graduation, he started a construction career as a project manager/engineer, focusing on various civil contracted projects from Florida to Texas. Continuing in the construction field for the last 15 years, Mike has managed a variety of projects, such as water and wastewater plants, bridge repair, and new building construction, in addition to his love of turning old rubbish into something more eye-catching. Lawn Butler needs an engineer like Mike, whose jokes are not so dry that we have to install his own irrigation system. Mike and Claire have four children, and Mike loves spending time with his family, coaching in their sports leagues, going to the beach, watching UT football, basketball, and baseball. Mike is ready to tackle anything Lawn Butler hits his way.

Ken Budz

Landscape Design and Sales

Ken is a Chicago native and moved to the great state of Tennessee in 2012. Ken spent the first 16 years of his life as a sales consultant and wanted to experience the wonderful joys of being outdoors, along with the creativity of the landscape industry. Ken started with Lawn Butler as an enhancement and installation foreman before quickly learning and excelling in the trade. Ken was promoted to Landscape Design and Sales due to his professionalism and love of people. When Ken isn't busy coordinating landscape enhancements and installations, he's busy watching sports and possibly engaging in a small wager. Although the PGA tour will never be calling Ken, you'll often find him on the golf course. He strives to build rapport, discover clients’ needs, and make recommendations suited for each.

Brian Stovall

Landscape Designer

Brian is a Memphis native who came to Knoxville for an undergraduate degree in Landscape Design from the University of Tennessee. He met his wife, Chelsea, while in school and then continued his education, getting a masters in Landscape Architecture. After graduating, Brian worked with a local Landscape Design Firm for two years until accepting a position with Lawn Butler. Using a design-based process to problem-solve the function or enhance the aesthetics of a client's property is what Brian enjoys doing most on the Lawn Butler team. Brian enjoys cooking with his wife, parenting his two daughters, reading, and working in his yard. He has also never met a Hawaiian shirt he did not like.

Julian Hernandez

Construction Project Manager

Julian is a native of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, who relocated to Knoxville in 1996. In 2017, Julian joined Lawn Butler. Starting out working in the maintenance division, Julian quickly proved himself to be an excellent addition to the team. His incredible work ethic, job management skills, and efficiency led him to be voted employee of the year in 2019 by his co-workers. In January of 2020 Julian took on the position of Production Supervisor. Julian has been happily married for seventeen years to his wife, Mary Beth, and has four children. Julian enjoys spending time with his family and playing soccer.  Julian never goes a day without smiling and has the best attitude.

Chris Bennett

Construction Project Manager

Born and raised in dry town Utah, Chris grew up among close neighbors, summer droughts, and mountain dirt roads. After High School graduation, Chris moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina where he served as a missionary for his church. Over the two years he spent in Argentina, Chris not only learned to speak Spanish, but came to love the language, the culture and the people there. Chris moved to Virginia and met his now wife while working in the landscape industry. Chris is married to Brindy, and loves nothing more than spending time with her and their five children. After spending 18 months on a traveling excursion across the United States and Canada in a travel trailer, they’ve settled in East Tennessee, because it feels the most like home out of all the states they visited. Chris has over 8 years of experience in lawn care, construction and design, but his work mostly reflects his love and passion for transforming properties into beautiful spaces. Chris' vision, creativity, and ingenuity brings landscapes to life, partly due to tasting every different kind of energy drink. He loves working with all of the crews and is a perfect cultural fit to Lawn Butler.

Josh Kerns

Marketing Director, Irrigation Division Manager

Josh came to Lawn Butler in March of 2014 as an irrigation technician and quickly moved into the position of managing the irrigation service division. In 2016 Josh was given the opportunity to put his various design and digital skills to use and become Lawn Butler’s first marketing director. Josh and his wife Jessica have four children. In his free time, Josh enjoys spending time with his family in the mountains. Josh loves the irony of his job title essentially being Lawn Butler's extrovert even though he is the most introverted team member.

Ethan Havely

Plant Procurement and Greenhouse Manager

Ethan first came to Lawn Butler in the summer of 2018, looking for a way to earn some extra gas money while in high school. Unbeknownst to him, it would become a passion that turned into a career. Since then, he has developed a unique enthusiasm for the green industry, accruing experience learning in the landscape, agriculture, and wholesale nursery industries. He has yet to find a plant species that he does not find interesting, and has zealously been managing Lawn Butler’s material procurement operation. After moving to Cookeville, TN in 2019, he graduated from Tennessee Tech University, where he met his wife, Abby. They are happily married and still newlyweds. He found his way back to Knoxville in 2023, with the goal of someday owning Lawn Butler. In his free time, he enjoys attending Tennessee football games, growing prize winning tomatoes, trout fishing, binge watching the Office, and spending time with his friends and family. Despite the luscious locks of hair you see above, Ethan wears a hat 95% of the time.

Jeff Ingram

Controller

Jeff, a Kentucky native and Hawaii Pacific University accounting graduate, has been with Lawn Butler since June 2019.  With over 31 years in accounting, sixteen of those years in the green industry, Jeff provides a seasoned view and maturity to Lawn Butler's management team.  Being one of only two managers who refused to turn sideways for his profile picture, he also adds a perspective of thinking outside the lines, which keeps us on our toes.  He is married to Nora, whom he has blissfully learned after 18 years, is the real boss in his house.  He also has a son who has promised to take care of him in his old age, which literally began at his last birthday.  Lastly, as a dog person, Jeff currently has three cats in his home and doesn’t know how any of them got there.

Seth Kehne

President

Seth started Lawn Butler in 1999 as a high schooler to help pay for college. He graduated in finance from the University of Tennessee. After growing the business all through college, Seth realized that he loved the landscape industry and enjoyed interacting with employees, customers, and the community. He is a Leadership Knoxville graduate and serves on multiple non-profit boards in Knoxville and as an elder at church. Seth spends his time proving Lawn Butler as an industry leader for service, professionalism, and company culture. He strives for Lawn Butler to be a destination company full of exceptional team members. Seth has been married to Katie for over 20 years and they have three busy children. Seth enjoys coaching youth sports, running, watching “the real” UT sports, and spending time at the lake in the small amounts of free time he has each week.

Grant Rice

Fleet and Facilities Manager

Grant came to Lawn Butler in 2015 and brings with him over twenty years of experience in the fleet repair and maintenance industry. He is an ASE Master Certified Technician that brings a vast knowledge of fleet repair and management to the Lawn Butler team. He is responsible for managing all of the equipment and vehicles and overseeing all maintenance and repairs of our facility. He manages a fleet of over 50 vehicles and hundreds of pieces of equipment. Grant is a key part of our continuous effort to provide a safe and successful working environment for our team and customers. He has a wife and two beautiful daughters. In his free time, he serves in his church as a sound technician and enjoys camping and being outdoors, because he is a closet introvert.