Jacobsen Construction Co. has named Heather Soderquist as the firm's first-ever vice president of construction innovation, with an eye toward elevating innovative practices as a core competitive differentiator for the firm. 

Soderquist has been with Jacobsen for 18 years, most recently in the role of director of operations training and development, where she helped project teams regularly grow and refine their construction skillsets. She also previously worked as 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 additionally played a key leadership role in pioneering Jacobsen's company-wide use of essential jobsite 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 CEO 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 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 this inaugural fair to give demonstrations showcasing the latest jobsite uses of laser scanning, drones, virtual reality (VR), robotics and more, presenting their insights to Jacobsen project leaders. The tech fair is expected to be instituted as a regular feature of Jacobsen workforce training sessions moving forward.