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Tecomate Staff Biographies
Rick Olson | David Morris | Gary Schwarz | Jeff Foxworthy | William Hagerman | Rans Thomas
 Rick Olson » Tecomate CEO/President, Partner
Tecomate is led by its President and CEO, Rick Olson. Prior to becoming a partner in Tecomate, Rick has served as President of many successful companies offering an impressive diversified portfolio of varies businesses and harmonious, real estate developments with amenity-filled and picturesque communities throughout the Southeastern United States.
Olson’s broad range of real estate experience includes a unique understanding of identifying opportunities, market analysis, underwriting, local state and governmental entitlements, site selection, financing, acquisitions, conceptual design, turn-key development, construction, leasing, management and operations. Rick Olson possesses an innate ability to assess the potential value of vacant property and manage the process with an attention to detail that ensures maximum profits.
Rick enjoys and values each person he comes in contact with and takes pleasure working outside the box with complicated issues by utilizing his creative structure and persistence to overcome and achieve his goals.
Rick has been an outdoorsman since his childhood and is a devoted family and Christian man!
David Morris » Tecomate VP, Founder, Partner
 PODCAST: Versus County Interview with David Morris
 David Morris grew up hunting and fishing in South Alabama. His love for the outdoors led him to get a master's degree in biology from Auburn University, where he worked summers and holidays as a professional bass guide on nearby Lake Eufaula. After graduation, David founded Georgia's Burnt Pine Plantation, a 14,000-acre commercial whitetail hunting operation, and served as its managing partner for 20 years, during which time he developed one of the most intensive quality buck management programs in the South, allowing his clients to harvest nearly 2,000 bucks.
In 1976, David and his partners founded Game & Fish Publications and ultimately grew the company to include 33 state and regional hunting and fishing magazines covering all Lower 48 states plus North American Whitetail, the nation's premier deer-only magazine. He served as editor and executive publisher until stepping away from day-to-day duties in late 1990 to write and lecture on hunting and whitetail management under the company name of Venture Press.
David has written three books on whitetail hunting. His first book, Hunting Trophy Whitetails, is widely acclaimed as the most complete book ever written on the subject. His second book, Advanced Strategies for Trophy Whitetails, is one of the all-time best selling hunting books. In addition to his countless articles published in North American Whitetail and Game & Fish magazines, David's articles have appeared in Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, Field & Stream and several other magazines. Additionally, he has published four other whitetail books – Hunting the Four Periods of the Rut by #### Idol, Great Whitetail Hunts, Legendary Whitetails and World Record Whitetails by Gordon Whittington. David has a passion for big whitetails and has hunted them successfully throughout North America and has amassed one of the largest collections of personally harvested trophy whitetails in the country.
In 1992, David bought a small ranch western Montana, and in 1998, he purchased 3000-acre El Cazador Ranch in South Texas. Using Tecomate Food Plots as the core of an intensive management program, David began growing lots of huge whitetails. Today, El Cazador is recognized as one on the top trophy whitetail ranches in the country and has been the subject of many magazine articles, TV shows and research projects.
In 2000, David joined forces with food plot pioneer Dr. Gary Schwarz to form Tecomate Wildlife Systems, a company literally forced into existence by the big bucks Gary and David were growing. Tecomate went on to become one of the nation’s largest suppliers of wildlife management services and products, including Tecomate Seed and the famous food-plot planting machine, Plotmaster. Tecomate continues to help managers and hunters throughout the county realize their deer hunting dreams.
The success of the Tecomate Management System and El Cazador Ranch has given David the opportunity to be a regular on many outdoor TV shows, including Realtree Outdoors, The Management Advantage, Gander Mountain’s “We Live Outdoors,” The World of Hunting and many others. In 2007, David and Tecomate partner, comedian Jeff Foxworthy, began hosting Tecomate’s own hunting show, The Bucks of Tecomate, on Versus Network. In its first year, the show was Versus’ highest rated program, and one particular show had the highest ratings ever for the network. David and Jeff also host Versus Whitetail Challenge, for which Tecomate is the title sponsor. Additionally, David is a regular field host for Versus’ Dangerous Game TV show filmed mostly in Africa.
David’s career and accomplishments are not the most important things in his life. His personal relationship with his Lord Jesus Christ holds that place, along with his love for his wife, Debra, and his three daughters, who all share his passion for the outdoors.
Gary Schwarz » Tecomate Founder, Partner
 Born in 1952, Gary Schwarz grew up on his family’s South Texas farm, where he developed a deep love of wildlife and land. After completing his residency in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in 1983, Gary and seven friends purchased his first 1,000 acres of land, the beginning of what ultimately became the famous Tecomate Ranch. Gary and his partners placed the first Conservation Easement ever done in Texas on the initial property in 1986. Gary has also placed Conservation Easements on all his other acquisitions, protecting them in perpetuity from becoming anything other than what they are today – wildlife habitat.
Besides land conservation, Gary’s other consuming passion is wildlife management. Convinced he could use the farming knowledge he learned from his father and the research knowledge he learned in school to grow bigger deer on his property, Gary began to seek out the right forages and develop predictable dry land farming techniques in 1983. By 1989, he had perfected farming methods, discovered lablab and other new subtropical legumes and invented the reversible game-proof fence for food plots, opening the way for revolutionary food plot management for deer even in arid South Texas.
The results were spectacular! The unbelievable explosion in deer numbers, size (both antler size and body weights) and reproductive rates had never reported before. Word spread rapidly, aided by the scientific research done on his ranch by the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. The Institute validated his results with three separate Master’s Degree thesis earned in two-year studies done by graduate students under the direction of Dr. Tim Fulbright. The results of each study were published in prominent scientific peer-reviewed journals, setting Tecomate’s work apart and establishing the credibility of the techniques Gary had pioneered.
The clamor among hunters and managers for information and seed literally forced Gary into the seed business in 1991, when Gary, Fred Schuster, and Dr. Fulbright started the original Tecomate Seed Company. Awards and acknowledgements began to follow, as Gary received the Wildlife Stewardship Award from the Wildlife Society, the first Lone Star Land Stewardship Award from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and the first Friend of Wildlife Award from the Texas Wildlife Association.
Among the many people Gary met as a result of his successes was one man who would become not only a dear friend but also his business partner, David Morris. David shared Gary’s love of hunting and management, had had similar success in using food plots as the centerpiece of intensive whitetail management, and, most importantly, shared Gary’s love of family and Lord Jesus. Not long after the two met, David purchased neighboring El Cazador Ranch in 1998, and they joined together to form Tecomate Wildlife Systems in 2000, with the express purpose of helping others realize their dream of owning and managing their own property… for big deer!
Today, Gary is exploring new interests on two recently purchased ranches. On one, Gary is pushing the envelope on bass management. With five newly constructed lakes from 7 to 80 acres, Gary is developing forage production strategies that will take forage production (food sources) to an all new level, promising of more and bigger bass than ever thought possible. On the other property, Gary is taking upland game bird management to a new frontier and has turned unproductive county into a bird paradise supporting incredible dove populations and perhaps the highest density of wild bobwhite quail ever produced! Gary credits all of his successes to God and his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
 Jeff Foxworthy » Tecomate Partner
Jeff Foxworthy is one of the most respected and successful comedians in the country. He is the largest selling comedy-recording artist in history, a multiple Grammy Award nominee and best-selling author of more than 23 books. Widely known for his redneck jokes, his act goes well beyond that to explore the humor in everyday family interactions and human nature, a style that has been compared to Mark Twain’s.
In addition to hosting The Bucks of Tecomate, Jeff is currently hosting the highly acclaimed Fox show, Are Your Smarter than a 5th Grader? Jeff’s accomplishments are too numerous to lists them all but to name a few ... host of the CMT Music Awards and The Foxworthy Countdown radio show; star of CMT’s Foxworthy’s Big Night Out, Blue Collar TV and the phenomenally successful Blue Collar Comedy Tour and movie series; author of several New York Times Bestsellers, including The Redneck Dictionary I, II and III; the voice of numerous movie characters; owner of his own line of greeting cards and specialty products; producer and star of numerous CDs and countless TV specials; and there’s even a Jeff Foxworthy™ “You Might Be A Redneck If…®” video slot game in Nevada casinos. Jeff’s career accomplishments go on and on.
Away from the stage, an interest near and dear to Jeff is the Duke University Children’s Hospital in Durham, NC. Jeff is the Honorary Chairman of the Duke Children’s Classic Golf Tournament. With Jeff’s help, the hospital, which specializes in treating children with cancer, has raised tens of millions in the last ten years.
This Georgia native resides with his wife and two daughters in Atlanta. An avid sportsman and wildlife manager, Jeff has a love for the outdoors and especially big whitetails. On his Georgia farm, The Beloved Homeplace, Jeff and his foreman, Glenn Garner, manage the property under the Tecomate Food Plot System and have grown many world-class whitetails! Jeff has pursued big bucks across the continent and shares his passion for trophy whitetails on The Bucks of Tecomate TV show and Tecomate’s Versus Whitetail Challenge.
William Hagerman » Tecomate Director
Bill Hagerman is currently senior vice-president and director at Dunavant Enterprises in Memphis, TN. Dunavant is the world’s largest privately owned cotton merchant with offices in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Since 2000, Bill has managed Dunavant’s $200 million portfolio of real estate investments, including agricultural, residential, resort, commercial and industrial assets. Prior to joining Dunavant, Bill was founder and president of ETI Corporation, a leading consulting engineering firm specializing in industrial waste management. Bill has founded many companies, including the nation’s largest Class C Hazardous and Toxic Waste Disposal and Treatment Facility, which was sold to Waste Management. Bill also has served on the Management Committee for Waste Management; as the Chemical Waste Management Advisor for USPCI and Union Pacific Railroad; and as advisor to Concord Resources Group and Consolidated Rail Corporation.
Bill received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Memphis in 1974 and worked towards a Master’s of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Memphis in 1978. He is a director of New Tecomate Holdings, LLC and will serve as its managing advisor and a member of the Investment Committee.
Rans Thomas » Biologist and Manager of Tecomate Consulting & Management
 Rans Thomas, Tecomate’s head biologist and manager for the Tecomate Consulting & Management Division, is a native of Georgia and took his first job on a hunting plantation at age 17. He holds an Associate’s Degree in Wildlife and Forest Management from ABAC and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Georgia. Over the past 17 years, Rans has worked as a manager, guide, and/or biologist on six premier hunting plantations in the Southeast, including a tenure as general manager of the famous 23,000-acre Groton Plantation in South Carolina.
Rans developed a course of study entitled “Wildlife and Plantation Management” for a technical college in Georgia. Today, Thomas is an accomplished and published wildlife biologist and consultant, working with over 200,000 acres of private hunting lands in 10 different states. Rans is a regular field host on The Bucks of Tecomate and hosts each episode’s “Management Minute.” He has introduced landowners and managers throughout the U.S. to the Tecomate Management Strategy and helped them grow more and bigger bucks than they ever dreamed possible.
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