Published on: September 21, 2026
Ask just about anyone who’s been at Charter for a while what makes the company successful and great, and you’ll probably hear the same answer: the people.
Great companies are built on memorable milestones, but exceptional people sustain them. At Charter Construction, true leadership isn’t fast-tracked through a manual—it is forged in the field, tested on complex projects, and passed down through a culture of mutual trust.
Andrew Lee, Charter’s Director of Support Operations, is a perfect reflection of that philosophy. His journey from a rural Louisiana labor crew to the backbone of our support operations highlights how Charter is a place where people genuinely invest in one another.
A Natural Path into Construction
Andrew’s interest in construction started long before college.
“I’ve always had the fire to enjoy fixing and building things,” he said. “Even at a pretty young age, I knew I was either going into engineering, manufacturing, or construction.” Growing up in rural Louisiana, he spent countless hours helping his grandfather maintain a small trucking fleet that hauled sand, gravel, and asphalt. “I grew up fetching wrenches for my grandfather,” Andrew said. “Construction just felt like a natural fit,” he said.
He entered the industry as a laborer after high school and spent nearly eight years learning the trade before deciding to take a different step. At 26, he enrolled at Louisiana State University to study construction management.
As graduation approached, he found an online job posting from Charter Construction for an assistant project manager position. He interviewed over Zoom, accepted the offer, and the day after graduating from LSU, he and his wife packed everything they owned into a U-Haul and headed north.
Learning by Watching Great Leaders
Andrew’s career moved quickly. After about ten months as an Assistant Project Manager, he became a Project Manager. Less than a year later, he was promoted to Senior Project Manager. Today, he serves as Charter’s Director of Support Operations.
For Andrew, those promotions were driven by daily observation. “I’ve learned the most by watching the leaders around me. Knowing when to talk and when to listen has probably helped me more than anything,” he said.
At Charter, leadership isn’t something that’s talked about constantly. It’s demonstrated. “The senior leaders at Charter aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. They’ll stay late to solve problems, and they’ll never ask someone else to do something they wouldn’t do themselves.” That example shaped the way Andrew approaches leadership today.
For Andrew, one moment stands out above the rest. While managing two complex projects at Vanderbilt University Medical Center—Central Garage Expansion and Jim Ayers Tower—Andrew found himself leading work unlike anything he’d experienced before.
“I was only about a year out of college,” he said. “We were dealing with conditions that none of us had ever seen before.” When the team finally topped out Jim Ayers Tower, Andrew stood on the roof with then-Assistant Project Manager Hank Arnold and looked across the Nashville skyline. “It was just this overwhelming feeling of, ‘We made it.'” He immediately sent a message to Charter’s leadership.
“I can’t think of another company that would take a kid from a town of fewer than 500 people in rural Louisiana and trust him with a project like that. They gave me the opportunity, and I learned more than I ever thought possible,” he said.
Supporting the People Who Build
Today, Andrew serves in a vital role as the Director of Support Operations. Moving behind the scenes, he works directly with the heads of Charter’s trucking, formwork, equipment, crane, and fabrication divisions to ensure the field teams have everything required to execute daily operations safely. It is a massive logistical puzzle, but Andrew draws his daily motivation from the sheer scale of human impact behind the equipment.
“We’re behind the scenes making sure more than 800 people have the tools and equipment they need to do their jobs,” he said.
For Andrew, the work goes far beyond logistics.
“We don’t just supply formwork or equipment,” he said. “We supply people with the means to provide for their families.” That perspective shapes how he approaches every decision. It’s also one of the reasons he appreciates Charter’s culture so much. “If something isn’t working, we’re trusted to fix it,” he said. “We’re given the freedom to create solutions, implement them quickly, and keep improving. That’s a really rewarding place to work.”
More Than a Job
When Andrew talks about Charter, he rarely talks about concrete. Instead, he talks about people. He talks about coworkers who become lifelong friends. About challenging projects that bring teams closer together. About leaders who invest in people before they invest in growth.
“If you want a place where you can simply clock in and clock out, Charter probably isn’t it,” he said. “But if you want to build meaningful relationships, work alongside people you can count on, and be part of something that’s bigger than yourself, you’ll probably find a home here.”
For Andrew, that’s exactly what happened. What started with a U-Haul and a leap of faith has become a career built on opportunity, trust, and a team that’s been willing to grow alongside him.
