The Eco-Colosseum will be built by Forward Footprint, a limited liability company that was formerly called J.A. Jacobs, LLC, and began in 1997. The management team will be comprised of the owners, Joe Jacobs as President and Laura Walker as Vice-President.
Joe Jacobs started his solid waste career in 1996 when he purchased property that had an existing inert landfill. Although this landfill had been operated since 1979 with a strict environmental conscience, changing county regulations placed its permit out of compliance. Through the process of bringing the facility up to current regulations, Mr. Jacobs had the opportunity to write and pass new environmental standards for Spokane County. He also became a member of the Solid Waste Association of North America, received national certification as a Manager of Landfill Operations (MOLO), and attended many conferences throughout the U.S. on the subjects of landfill design, construction and operation.
Drawing upon his B.A. in Business degree, he operated an inert recycling company for six years, along with a dumpster trucking business for two years in the interim. Both businesses were highly effective and succeeded through many phases of growth. The dumpster truck business was sold at a profit to a competitor in 2005. Experience in the construction field and knowledge of heavy equipment has been essential to his proficiency in contract bidding and project management.
Mr. Jacobs has also had six years of management experience in the health care and food brokerage arenas. He is also an active client of the Small Business Development Center in Spokane, through which he has taken several educational courses and received two years of valuable counseling and instruction. His education and experiences have contributed to his knowledge of how to operate a prosperous business and manage a large construction project.
Today he serves on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, whose current charge is the rewrite and update of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste Management Plan. This plan will address the comprehensive solid waste needs of the region for the next five years. Additionally, Mr. Jacobs has been active in the revision and adoption of the Eastern Washington Critical Areas Ordinances, with particular emphasis on the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area, wetlands, and stream-typing. His experience in the political arena, specifically the solid waste management sector, has advanced Mr. Jacobs’ expertise in this field and makes him a highly qualified project manager of the Eco-Colosseum.
Laura Walker has an eclectic background in communications, small business operations, sales, customer service, collections, accounting, general office, web site design and maintenance, and creative business. For four years, Ms. Walker was intensely involved in the operation of a web-based antique prints business that realized sales revenue of over $1 million in 2006. Over the course of ten years, this business grew from a small eBay sales operation to be the largest online supplier of antique prints in the world. While Ms. Walker was involved with this company, she learned many aspects of how to build and grow a successful small business.
With a B.A. in English and Theatre Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing, she has extensive education and training in the English language and literature, including critical and scholarly writing; technical, journalistic and creative writing; as well as basic rhetoric and composition. She has done and will continue to perform the writing tasks involved in this project, such as the development of the public relations campaign, the request for bid proposals and the project policy manuals. She will also be managing the office, creating much of the marketing materials, presentation packages, and web site development and maintenance.
Jeff Drew has a background in communications and media production. He has worked on a newspaper staff, tv production crew and been an entrepreneur in three start-up environments. Previously, Mr. Drew was one of three principals that built a start-up marketing communications company, that's focus was on disc-based (cd-rom, dvd-rom, dvd-video) marketing tools and kiosks. At this company he served as CEO & Chief Creative Officer. He has developed countless projects for many teams and companies.
In 15 years of hands-on experience developing teams, concepts, products, and designs, Mr. Drew shares what he feels is the most important lesson of all: "Dream Big. Think beyond the short term. If you're determined and capable of dreaming, you and the team will develop a product that positively impacts life, ultimately changing culture."
In addition to his commitments to Forward Footprint, Mr. Drew currently serves as CEO of Wake to Dream Productions, a media development company based in Washington State. The company creates and consults on Film, TV, 3D ArchViz. Wake to Dream Productions serves clients across the US.
