New leader for Flower Show, PHS brings business background

After a six-month nationwide search, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has selected a new president from Philadelphia's nonprofit and business communities.

Matt Rader - who has held leadership roles with the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust and the business improvement district that helped revitalize East Passyunk Avenue - will be the 37th president of the nonprofit that runs the world's largest and oldest indoor flower show.

Rader, 37, holds a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He spent the last four years as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co., working with large corporations and government agencies to set goals and then organize to achieve them.

He intends to do the same for the Horticultural Society.

"At PHS, the mission is very clear: connecting people to horticulture and working with them to create greener, healthier, more beautiful, and more sustainable communities," he said Monday at PHS offices, where he was meeting many of the organization's staff for the first time. "The key is making the goals the lodestar and not deviating from them."

He will get to work Monday, with less than two months to go before the March 5 opening of PHS's marquee event, the Philadelphia Flower Show. This year's theme, "Explore America," celebrates the centennial of the National Park Service.

Rader, who lives in a Center City apartment with his partner, Michael Smith, described himself as deeply devoted to Philadelphia and a regular Flower Show attendee since childhood.

So his interest in PHS comes more from an urbanist's perspective than from a horticulturalist's (although he was an active vegetable and flower gardener as a kid). He worked for the Urban Land Institute, advising cities on place-making and regeneration.

"Most of my career has been about working to make Philadelphia a better, more prosperous, healthier, more sustainable place," he said. "I am a lover and active user of parks and gardens all over the city, from Washington Square, which I use as my backyard, to the Woodlands, the Pennypack, and beyond."

Margaret Sadler, chairwoman of PHS's board, said enthusiasm for the city, along with Rader's consulting experience, convinced her he was the right choice.

"Matt brings to PHS a solid background in business, which was critically important to us," she said. "He's a thoughtful manager, and he will bring a rigorous process to PHS while at the same time allowing staff to be as creative as they possibly can be."

Rader's was not a familiar name to many Flower Show participants and garden advocates.

But they have a long to-do list for the new president, who replaces Drew Becher, who helped modernize PHS with a new organizational structure and a popular pop-up garden program - but who also raised the hackles of some staff and supporters with his management style and a perceived emphasis on large, flashy projects over the neighborhood garden and greening programs that are vital to low-income communities in particular.

Amy Laura Cahn, who runs the Public Interest Law Center's Garden Justice Legal Initiative and serves on the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council, said more resources for those programs are direly needed.

"We hope a new president bolsters and prioritizes community gardening and urban agriculture work - the kind of work that PHS has historically done, going back decades, to support Philadelphia neighborhoods," she said.

Rader's highest-profile challenge, though, will be steering the Flower Show at a time when some think drastic changes are already overdue.

"I'm very excited that the new leader is an alumnus of Wharton," said Michael Petrie, owner of Handmade Gardens in Swarthmore, who has been exhibiting at the show for more than 30 years. "That assures me that he will be able to attend to . . . finances and expenditures, and how the money is allocated. That's always been a concern of mine."

After all, he said, the Flower Show is first and foremost a fund-raiser, raising about $1 million in profits for PHS. He thinks it's time someone took a hard look at the timing of the show (forcing flowers out of season is more expensive than ever) and the venue (assembling exhibits in a union shop is, he said, unsustainable).

Rader said he'd be watching closely as Flower Show preparations come together, and it's too soon to say what changes might be in order.

But his first job will be making connections - and, perhaps, mending fences - with volunteers and partner organizations.

"For me, personally, the things that are most important are staying very close to the network of volunteers and supporters, because they are what make PHS great," he said.

Lucy Strackhouse, senior director of preservation and project management at the Fairmount Park Conservancy, said she was looking forward to that collaboration. She recalled Rader as a "wonderful, energetic young man" during his time with the parks groups.

"It's a huge city and it takes a lot of hands, so we're always happy to collaborate. We're looking forward to doing that in the future, especially with Mr. Rader coming on, who has a history already with Fairmount Park."

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