Gene Cooke has a pretty cool job. That’s
not just a pun on the fact that Cold Jet
LLC, the company where Cooke is president and CEO, is the premier dry ice blasting and dry ice production company. The
fact is, Cooke gets to use the company’s
capabilities to charge his people with the
task of creating new technology.
To say that Cooke has been successful in
putting that charge to his employees would
be an understatement. Cold Jet was originally founded in 1986 on the concept of creating a cost-effective, environmentally
responsible cleaning solution for the aviation industry. After signing an initial
contract with the Air Force to expand on
the still burgeoning technology, it was
discovered that the cleaning process
was too harsh for some aircraft.
So it was back to the drawing board for
Cold Jet as it tried to make its technology smaller — the original cleaning systems were the size of a large trailer —
and more practical.
Leading on the premise that technology would lead the company through hard
times, Cold Jet became more and more
efficient. Soon, Cold Jet was able to
begin convincing other companies of the
value of its cleaning capabilities, playing
off the fact that its products contain no
toxic chemicals or waste since CO2
vaporizes on contact while cleaning
machines. Taking that technology to
new fields — Cold Jet was able to help
with the cleanup after the Hurricane
Katrina disaster — Cooke has the company growing and on the verge of something even bigger.
HOW TO REACH: Cold Jet LLC, www.coldjet.com or (513) 831-3211