Matt Lucas, President   Matthew@JobMonkey.com

Matthew Lucas is a young entrepreneur whose career has included a wide variety of ventures, including creating and selling an all-natural suntan lotion packaged in a real coconut shell, and heading companies in the student travel and national college marketing and promotions fields. His most successful initiative, however, began in 1985 when he first published a popular guidebook for seasonal workers in Alaska. This single guidebook eventually grew into a publishing company that created, sold, and marketed nineteen books and resource guides on alternative employment, travel, and college financial aid.

And now his company has leaped into the multimedia age with the creation of JobMonkey.com.

The spirit and drive behind the ambitious creation of JobMonkey.com represents the same sense of adventure that led to the publication of the first Alaska Employment Program. Just three days after graduating from high school, Lucas and two of his schoolmates traveled to Alaska after hearing that they could earn big bucks working in the fishing industry there. Eager but naive, they packed up their VW bug and started driving north, completely clueless about the realities of working up North. Five days later, they found themselves in Ketchikan, Alaska, ready to work and fatten their bank accounts.

Then reality struck.

They were three weeks too early for the fishing season, and they realized they knew nothing about the industry or how to get jobs in it. Not only that, but they had packed the wrong gear for what they soon discovered was the rainiest town in North America. To make matters worse, they didn't have enough money to last until the beginning of fishing season, and there were no campgrounds close to town. But rather than giving up and heading back home, Lucas and his friends decided they were going to make this work. Surviving on a diet that consisted mostly of instant noodles and sleeping at a waterlogged makeshift campsite, they used those three weeks to learn as much about the industry as possible.

Eventually, they all landed good jobs. Lucas and one friend became deckhands on a salmon fishing boat, and the other friend stayed back and worked in an onshore processing plant. Luckily, it worked out for all of them, and they ended up having great experiences and making good money.

While enduring these challenging weeks before he found a job, Lucas realized that he and his friends weren't the only ones who had made mistakes trying to find work in Alaska. He saw a definite need for a quality resource that would tell people exactly what it takes to obtain employment in the industry. Lucas did research that entire summer and continued to learn about the industry as a freshman at the University of Washington. Pulling all this material together, in January of 1985 he published the first truly authoritative guide on working in Alaska's fishing industry.

But he didn't stop there. Each summer, Lucas traveled back to Alaska to do more research, producing better and better editions of his book each time. Eventually, he managed to visit just about every major commercial fishing town, cannery, and onshore processing plant in the state. His book, The Alaska Employment Program, became widely known as the bible for working in Alaska's fishing industry.

Lucas is an avid adventure traveler and a general expert on worldwide, alternative employment opportunities. He has visited over twenty different countries and worked a diverse range of jobs that include employment on a fishing boat, an onshore salmon processing plant, and a summer camp in the San Juan Islands, as well as a job as a bartender at a fishing lodge along the Kenai River in Alaska. During his travels he has done extensive research on the subject matter covered on the JobMonkey Web site.

Lucas enjoys most outdoor sports, including mountain biking, wakeboarding, skiing (both types), snowboarding, and hiking. He also has a general aversion to CHEESE (food and other types)!

Linda Lolich, V.P. Marketing  linda@jobmonkey.com  

Linda has been working in college marketing for more than ten years. Eight of those have been with American Collegiate Marketing where most recently she was the Marketing Services Director, responsible for directing all client sales and distribution channels within the company. She oversaw successful college marketing programs for clients such as Sprint, Citibank, JobTrak and others. She also recently served as Marketing Director for the company's newly launched e-commerce website, Magazineline. Prior to that she spent time as an Account Executive, and as manager of the campus representative distribution channel.

Linda earned B.A. in marketing from Michigan State University.

Additional Contributors:

Kevin Lustgarten
Product Management and Business Development

Justin Williams
Fact-checking and Content Development

Bryan Griffin
Fact-checking and Staffing

Kevin Hile
Product Management

Peter Myers
Database Development and Graphics