Lisa Wolff Kaye is the president and founder of Wolf Technologies, Inc., which is located on St. Johns Bluff Road.
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
“I manage each department, interface with the department heads and run the financial and marketing end of the business.”
WHAT DOES THE COMPANY DO?
Geotechnical consulting, construction materials testing and inspection and laboratory services. “Geotechnical consulting is foundation design for structures for commercial buildings, roads or bridges. Geo means below ground, so we handle the technical consulting on the soil below ground.”
BIG PROJECTS?
Her company is doing the foundation design on the new Duval County Courthouse, new downtown library and regional libraries. They have also done work at Jacksonville International Airport, including the parking garage and pedestrian crosswalk. They are now doing the geotechnical design on the renovations in the terminal.
HOW DID HER COMPANY GET THOSE JOBS?
“By marketing the company to the City. I’m very active in the City and I have long relationships built up with the City and the people who serve the City. We did a lot of work for the City when they were working on the drainage system, but that has since been turned over to JEA.”
WHERE DO YOU WORK?
“All over the state of Florida, but we focus primarily in
Northeast Florida.”
WHAT CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE WORKING WITH FLORIDA SOIL?
“Our geotechnical engineers specialize in sandy soils and where you have problems is when you run into clay, organics and silt layers. Clay layers will shrink and expand with heat and cold and can cause settlement issues, so that is why you want to do a soil test. We go down to 100 feet depending on the size of the building. We do a profile of the soil, bring it to the laboratory, do tests on it and our engineers make recommendations on foundation design. We work closely with the building owner or the owner’s representative.”
WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO?
“We also tell them site preparation information, including how much of the vegetation they have to remove and how much fill they need to bring in. We do the foundation design and we are working with the design team who is designing the building, including the mechanical, electrical and walls. After that is done and they turn it over to a construction company to build, we also have another service which is construction materials testing. If you are in charge of the airport, you want to make sure that the materials they are bringing in, particularly the concrete and steel, are in accordance with standard. The only way you will know that is if I have a technician standing there testing it before it gets poured out of the truck.”
COMPANY NAME?
The name of the company was based on her former last name, Wolff, and its logo is a wolf head. “I know that I have an easier time visually remembering things. Sometimes, companies can have very complicated names. I thought someone will see the wolf head and think of Wolf Technologies. When you are a start-up company, which I was in 1993, nobody knows you and you need to go out and market yourself.”
WOLVES?
“People have a weird affinity for wolves. People send me all sorts of weird wolf things. I have wolf candles, putters, cushions and stickers. I’m tired of wolf stuff, I don’t want anyone to give me anymore wolf stuff. I’ve been in business for 10 years now and there isn’t much wolf stuff that I haven’t seen.”
WHAT MADE HER START HER OWN COMPANY?
“I was working for an engineering company, Law Engineering, that did similar things and the government contract started mandating back in the early 1990s that you had to have some minority participation, whether it be African-American, Hispanic, Asian or women-owned businesses. In Northeast Florida, there were zero women for us to use. When we submitted proposals, we had to illustrate our team and how we were diversifying the work and including minorities. There wasn’t any women-owned engineering companies in Jacksonville, so I saw a niche.”
HOW DID SHE GET INTO THIS BUSINESS?
She was a single parent and took a job marketing for Law Engineering. “Through marketing for them and trying to sell their services, I learned about all the services that they did. You can’t sell something if you don’t know what you are selling. In learning this, I just got absorbed in it and I found it very interesting.”
FAVORITE THING ABOUT ABOUT BEING INVOLVED iN THIS END OF REAL ESTATE?
“The fun thing is that we know what is coming before anyone else does. Sometimes, we are the first ones on site after the surveyor. The project may not be built for several years, but we know it is coming there. Also, just being able to drive around in my every day life, see all the projects I have worked on and say, ‘I worked on that.’”
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
She is a member of the American Society of Highway Engineers.
CIVIC INVOLVEMENT
She has created an endowment fund, the Mayor John A. Delaney Endowment Fund, to help underprivileged engineering students. “The students have to pick engineering as their major at the University of North Florida. I named it after Mayor John Delaney because I feel he was instrumental in getting the revenue for the Better Jacksonville Plan. My goal is to raise $25,000 in the first four years. What I’m going to do is go to all the engineering firms who have benefited from the Better Jacksonville Plan by winning the projects for minority outreach and tell them I have a vehicle for them to give back.” She is looking for donations and volunteers to help her stage events to raise funds.
BIRTHPLACE
Washington, D.C.
FAMILY
She recently married Christopher Kaye, who is an architect with PQH/Vargas Architects and Engineers. “One day we would like to get into developing together.” She has a 21-year-old daughter, Amber.
FAVORITES
A book she recommends is “What Do You Really Want For Your Children?” by Dr. Wayne Dyer. Her all-time favorite television show is “I Love Lucy,” but she tends to tune into CNN or “60 Minutes” when she has time to relax at home. Her favorite movie is “Gone With the Wind.” When dining out, she has three favorites, Matthews, Dolphin Depot, and Singleton’s Seafood. Her favorite place to visit is Key West because she enjoys deep sea fishing.
— by Michele Newbern Gillis