David Crawford
President
In 2000, David Crawford put his 22 years experience in healthcare consulting, marketing, sales, and residential/commercial construction into a new company he named Rain Water System, Inc. His vision was to form a company that would address rain water conservation and management, and sustainable water applications and practices. Today that company—now known as Rainwater Management Solutions - provides design, consulting, and engineering solutions for rain water and storm water management to commercial and residential developers, engineering and architectural firms, and professionals in the agricultural field. To date, the Salem, Virginia-based company has designed and/or installed over 1,000 rain water systems across the country.
A strong advocate of water conservation and management, in 2001 Dave and his brother Ed lobbied the Virginia House and Senate for passage of the first rain water harvesting legislation in the United States. The following year he worked with the Virginia Sate Health Department to rewrite Grey water laws.
Dave received his BS in Economics and Accounting from Mars Hill College in 1976. He has published numerous articles on water conservation and water sustainability issues and practices in such local and national publications as Laundry Today, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, Mother Earth News, Virginia Business Journal, The Roanoke Times, Farm Bureau Monthly, and Southern Farmer. Considered an expert in the field, he is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences.
Ed Crawford
Vice President Operations
Ed Crawford has 25 years of leadership experience in a variety of industries and activities including lobbying for the passage of rain water harvesting legislation, managing a municipal fire and EMS company, and managing a modular home manufacturing facility.
In August 2001 he joined Rain Water System, Inc. as Vice President Operations. In this position, Ed manages the design, construction and installation of rain water harvesting systems.
Ed is a strong advocate of water conservation and management. As such, in 2001 he and his brother Dave lobbied the Virginia House and Senate for passage of the first rain water harvesting legislation in the United States. Texas followed suit in 2002 with a similar bill. During 2002 and 2003, he worked with the Virginia Sate Health Department to rewrite Grey water laws.
He received his BS in Business from Ferrum College in 1979.
Benjamin Sojka
Vice President Design
Benjamin Sojka joins RMS after founding Farm Logistics LLC, which became the first RMS dealer in 2003.
A graduate of The University of Virginia’s school of Architecture under the tenure of Dean William McDonough, Benjamin has assisted in the design and overseen construction of multiple McDonough projects. Still an active partner in the family cattle farm, Cliffdale, Benjamin’s agriculture background reinforces the common sense approach evident in all RMS designs and projects.
Benjamin’s strong site work and utility background insures that RMS is able to take any project from conception to reality.
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Adrienne LaBranche
Operations
Adrienne joined RMS in June 2006, where she has served as an irrigation consultant. She also works with the non-profit group, the Cabell Brand Center. Current projects with the Cabell Brand Center include developing a Virginia Rainwater Harvesting Manual, developing the center’s new website, and developing educational handouts available on the website.
Adrienne is a Ph.D. student at Virginia Polytechnic and State University in Blacksburg, VA. She became interested in water conservation and water issues during her master’s research, which involved developing turfgrass irrigation levels to promote water conservation on golf course fairways and home lawns. Her present research focuses on developing an interactive website to assist in water conservation via weather based irrigation scheduling. She also has a BS degree in Ornamental Horticulture, thus is familiar with both landscape plants and turfgrass.
Throughout Adrienne’s master’s work, she participated in several Virginia and national meetings to present research findings and give informational talks. Throughout Adrienne’s academic career, she has headed and assisted in many publications and abstracts for peer reviewed journals, trade journals, and presentation abstracts.
Rick Hall
Operations
Rick recently joined the Rainwater Management Solutions team in January 2008. He has been instrumental in focusing on the day to day operations of the organization and assisting with sales and system designs. He is also working with projects partially funded through grants in conjunction with the Cabell Brand Center.
Rick retired from the United States Air Force as an Administrative Management Specialist in 1994. Since retiring, he has managed a durable medical equipment company, a radio station, an E911 Center and a County. He recently spent some time writing grants and managing numerous programs for a non profit organization and brings all this management experience to our organization.
He graduated from the Community College of the Air Force with an associate degree in 1980 and received his Bachelors Degree in Business Management from the University of Maryland in 1994. His ability to combine his education, background with business, non profit organizations and local, state and federal government have proved invaluable to the company.
Rick is also working with the Cabell Brand Center to find funding opportunities to eliminate the number of homes in the United States that are lacking indoor plumbing through the implementation of rainwater harvesting systems.
Sarah Lawson
Operations
Sarah Lawson joined RMS after completing her graduate work in environmental sciences at the University of Virginia in 2008. Sarah's interest in water quality and conservation began during her college years at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL, where she studied environmental studies and public policy with an emphasis on international relations.
This interest in international politics and the environment led Sarah to an undergraduate thesis on sustainable development, including field research in Ometepe, Nicaragua. Though surrounded by freshwater, this tropical island experiences chronic drinking water issues due to poor sanitation and municipal supply. While in Nicaragua, Sarah was able to meet with local government leaders to discuss alternative water solutions to protect both the environment and the health of the people of Ometepe.
Sarah's interest in water quality led to graduate research on the effects of sediment transport on shallow coastal systems. She has presented this work through oral and poster presentations and publication in an international journal. Sarah has also gained coursework and teaching experience in geology, hydrology and fluid mechanics while at UVA.
Robert Flack
Software
A graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania (I.U.P.) with a major in Computer Science and minor in Mathematics, Robert has been designing, developing and installing custom software for over 25 years.
He has a wide range of experience in software including custom desktop applications, industrial controls, graphic user interfaces, web design, database applications, high-speed network communication, thermodynamic modeling, embedded firmware and rapid prototype development.
Aside from writing programs, Robert has managed software engineers, steered committees in the development software standards, and organized and implemented software release procedures.
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