David Royce has made pests less pesky by creating four of the most successful, environmentally responsible pest control companies in North America. To recognize the serial entrepreneur’s achievement, the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Royce at its semiannual Founders Conference banquet.
“We have been very fortunate to win different awards, but this one from the Rollins Center is especially important to me,” Royce says. “This organization means so much. It is a group of peers that I deeply respect and an organization that helped me to have the vision to become an entrepreneur right out of school.”
Royce graduated in entrepreneurship from Brigham Young University in 2004. He most recently founded Aptive Environmental, a Provo-based environmental residential and commercial pest control company that provides service to more than 1,500 cities. Royce also started his previous company, Alterra, in Utah before selling it to Terminix in November 2015.
“There is something really special going on in Utah right now,” Royce says. “There is a sense of entrepreneurship that is getting noticed nationally and throughout the world.”
Royce has received many recognitions for his success as an entrepreneur. His companies have been featured in several national publications including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Entrepreneur. In 2015 Royce was also awarded the prestigious Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year. That same year his company received the first place award for Fastest Growing Service Company in America by the American Business Awards.
Royce has also transformed his success into supporting a good cause as a proud partner of the United Nations Foundation “Nothing But Nets.” A portion of company profits annually provide insecticide-treated bed nets that save the lives of millions of refugees across sub-Saharan Africa.
“When thinking about this award we look for men and women of high integrity and entrepreneurial savvy,” says Steven Fox, acting managing director of the Rollins Center. “David exemplifies these traits.”
In addition, Royce joins past recipients of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which include Amy Rees Anderson, founder of REES Capital, and Joshua James, CEO of Domo. Potential recipients for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award are chosen by the board of the Rollins Center’s Founders. Nominees are then vetted and approved by BYU leadership.
The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems and public management. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,300 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.
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Writer: Aricka Wilde
