Matthew Hively Email & Phone Number

Phillipsburg, New Jersey, United States

I joined HATponics in May of 2023 and started work as their director of operations. During those 4 months of work I completed construction on 10,000+ sqft. of Venlo greenhouse for the city of Des Moines, IA and 600+ sqft. of wide span greenhouse for the Akron, IA middle school. As the director of operations, I was deployed to the worksites, and would work away from home for up to 2 months at a time.My responsibilities included supervising a team of 2-4 construction workers, moving the construction team and trailer to various work sites, coordinating construction with the greenhouse vendor, ensuring the work of other contractors was satisfactory, and ensuring the projects were completed on time.

San Diego, California, United States

I started work as a Greenhouse Designer at GrowSpan Greenhouses. While performing this role, I produced greenhouse designs with 3D models for over 100 custom quotes. The greenhouses ranged from as small as 3,000 SQFT. to over 3-acres and involved various greenhouse series, to include Venlo structures. Also worked with 3rd parties to source interior systems such as hydroponics, fertigation systems, lighting units / lighting plans, environmental equipment, and greenhouse controls. Many of the greenhouses were engineered for local building codes and in some cases, extensive work was done in coordination with the customer's architects, surveyors, engineers, and growers.

Santa Ysabel, California, United States

I was hired by Palomar Works as the senior GH designer for a new greenhouse facility they were building on their existing property. During the work-up to the new greenhouse, I performed a series of retrofits on their existing greenhouse (over 20,000 sqft. of cannabis canopy). These retrofits included repairing their batch tanks, modifying the mixing system for the batch tanks, installing UV units, restoring their BioTherm hot water system, creating a P&ID layout of their irrigation system, and repairing damage to the GH structure. The most important project I completed for Palomar Works, was replacing their Link4 controls with a brand new system from Grownetics. This retrofit required a detailed work-up with Grownetics in order to replace the old system with new controls (during full production). The scope of this project included the removal of all Link4 components, creating relay cabinets for the Grownetics contactors, installing Grownetics controllers, wiring all the equipment with their contactors, programming the Grownetics units, installing sensors throughout the growing areas, commissioning each growing zone, and coordinating with technicians from Link4 and Grownetics. This project was successful and ultimately resulted fully integrated controls in all (5) growing zones, without any plants dying or being damaged.

I became the Senior Greenhouse Engineer at Go Green Agriculture after they were my primary client at Radix AgroSystems. I managed the installation of waterworks and environmental controls for 12 acres of greenhouse in the first dedicated Costco Wholesale Romaine production facility, valued at $35M. This included engineering and constructing a self-contained hydroponic pump room (built into 45’ shipping container), valued at $400k. Additionally, I worked on a 4-acre lettuce greenhouse where I built a hydroponic pumping system valued at over $100k and managed a greenhouse retrofit, which included brand-new environmental systems. Both of these projects were executed during production start up, requiring careful planning, coordination, and oversight.

Greater San Diego Area

I later folded H&H Consulting into a new company called Radix AgroSystem, Inc. Radix became a 2-man outfit focused on AgTech R&D, where we worked to repurpose recycled organics as a liquid fertilizer for indoor agriculture and selected field crops. We conducted R&D to understand how the soil ecosystem functions and how we could use biofertilizer/inoculants to enhance it. We also designed and prototyped biofertilizer production systems with irrigation injection called “BioFertigation." During this time I worked on 4.5 acres of hydroponic food production in San Diego.

I translated my work as the operations manager for Archi's Acres and my industry research, into a consulting company called H&H Growing. As the sole member of my company, I developed relationships with (4) clients in southern California and managed small contracting projects for organic-hydroponic agriculture. During that time, I helped build a 1/3 acre organic-hydroponic pepper farm from the ground up and improved the productivity of a 5 acre hydroponic leafy-greens farm, by building the waterworks system for its 2.5 acre greenhouse expansion.

Valley Center, Ca

I joined the Archi's Acres team in February of 2013, just after my exit from active duty service in the Marine Corps. Archi's Acres specializes in growing living basil using organic-hydroponics and controlled environments. I managed two greenhouses and three outdoor lots. I was responsible for all the farms functions, scheduling, and production. This included inventory oversight, project management, equipment maintenance, production schedules, plant monitoring, business development, and of course, harvesting. While working as the farm manager, I networked with a company to install an air purifying system which helped us eliminate 80% of our powdery mildew. We also increased production capacity by 1176 plant sites using the same greenhouse space and consolidated our propagation systems into a single greenhouse which led to a 30% increase in germination rates. Most importantly, my work helped Archi's Acres achieve an annual gross profit increase of $8.6k, save an estimated $38k by preventing plant loss, and save approximately 753 labor hours, equivalent to $9.4k (at $12.50 an hour) -- a total of over $56k in savings and profit.

Camp Pendleton

As a training coordinator, I provided classes and training courses to over 90 Marines in preparation for deployment. My unit obtained a combat readiness of 90% by developing a set of compliance standards for the Department of Defense (DoD) deployment requirements. We conducted 58 training courses with DoD schools, Marine Corps specific schools, and private companies. This was in addition to annual training and standard workplace education. One of my section's greatest achievements was creating a new electronic databases to store digital records for and track the training cycle of over 180 Marines.

Camp Pendleton, California

I conducted information collection and compiled intelligence reports. Additional details available upon request.

Okinawa, Japan

I was promoted to the head of my section in August of 2007 after working in several lateral positions. I managed ten technicians and the unit's maintenance cycle of eight AN/TRC-170 Microwave Radios worth $16M. My section saved 7th Communications Battalion over $120k by diagnosing and repairing broken parts slated for demolition. I also supervised the maintenance section during the August 2007 Commanding General’s Inspection, a base-wide assessment of unit deployability, and received a section commendation for 95% mission readiness with no negative findings. It was during this period that I completed my lateral move into military intelligence.

Okinawa, Japan

My first job in the Marine Corps was a TRC-170 microwave repair technician. I went to school for nine months in 29 Palms, California at the Marine Corps Communication-Electronics School (MCCES). I completed training in circuit theory, radio theory, circuit repair, soldering, and equipment/circuit testing. I received top honors upon graduation and was transferred to Camp Hansen in Okinawa, Japan. In Japan I worked as a technician for 7th Communications Battalion. I diagnosed, repaired, and ordered parts for the AN//TRC-170 Radios worth over $16M. I routinely used equipment such as Tektronix oscilloscopes, Fluke multi-meters, Agilent frequency counters, and the Huntron diagnostic suite to diagnose our systems. As a technician, I also ordered and tracked $2M worth of new parts for our systems using National Stock Number (NSN) databases. In addition to my regular work, I was given the collateral duty of Battalion Environmental Representative, for which I received a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.