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July 9, 2023 - Jacobsen Construction Company has named Heather Soderquist as its first-ever vice president of construction innovation.
Jacobsen has created the position to assure that innovative practices are one of the company’s key differentiators.
Soderquist has been with Jacobsen for 18 years, most recently as director of operations training and development.
In that role, she helped project teams grow and refine their construction skill sets.
She also had previously been a project manager, leading Jacobsen’s work on the Heber Valley Hospital campus reconfiguration, University of Utah College of Nursing, Fidelity Office Tower at The Gateway, Varex Imaging expansion, University of Utah Midvalley Health Center, and several other major projects.
Soderquist has also helped pioneer Jacobsen’s company-wide use of essential job-site technologies, such as building information modeling (BIM), laser scanning, Viewpoint, Bluebeam, Autodesk Build, and more.
“Heather is a leader who understands how to best position Jacobsen’s innovation strengths for optimal opportunity,” said Chief Operating Officer Matt Radke. “Her work ethic exemplifies Jacobsen’s core values of excellence, ownership, and partnership, and demonstrates her commitment to our collective vision of doing work that is Built for Life.”
Jacobsen formed the new vice president of construction innovation position with the goal of investing in innovation as a core construction management process long-term, strengthening the company’s preparedness for significant future advances in the industry.
“We recognize that our project teams’ ability to innovate will continue to be a key element to gaining and keeping a competitive edge,” Soderquist said. “Looking ahead, it is clear that innovation in construction and the strategic use of leading technologies will be important differentiators separating good contractors from excellent contractors.”
In her new role, Soderquist immediately launched a new tech training initiative at Jacobsen: the addition of a comprehensive technology fair to the company’s quarterly operations workforce training sessions.
Leading-edge tech vendor partners and the firm’s own in-house tech experts recently attended the inaugural fair to demonstrate the latest job-site uses of laser scanning, drones, virtual reality (VR), robotics, and more.
They presented insights to Jacobsen project leaders.
