OUR TEAM

OUR CORE

TEAM

Chief Financial Officer
James Wiberg, CPA

Purchasing & Operations Manager
Beth Johnson

Sales Executive - Kiawah River
Kimberly Taylor

Area Manager (North of the Broad)
John Ott

Project Manager - Charleston
Parke Harris

Senior Area Manager - Charleston
Rob Sims

Sales Executive - Habersham & Palmetto Bluff
Courtney Dukes

Sales Executive - Celadon & Callawassie
Cherie Tretheway

Manager of Architecture & Design
Travis Crabtree

Design + Interior Architectural Coordinator
Amellia Brooks

President

Henry Vala

Henry has worked in the custom home-building industry for over 30 years. Starting as a carpenter, he learned the business from the hands-on side. Over the years, his companies have built hundreds of homes. Vala believes that his success has come from making certain his values align with the customer’s. His mission has always been to deliver a quality home that surpasses expectations.

Vice President

Terry Owens

Terry has a long-tenured career in the home building business and focuses on the importance of on-site project management of our homes. He believes that our hands-on experience and quality control ensure that we deliver an exceptional product for the customer.

EVP of Sales & Marketing

William Luce

William has worked within the luxury real estate market sector for more than two decades. During this time, he has worked with renowned builders from all over the country developing various residential products and promoting them to the marketplace.

Chief Financial Officer

James Wiberg, CPA

James has decades of experience across all facets of the real estate industry, having started his career as a “Big 4” auditor with a specialization in residential and commercial developers, including homebuilder clients throughout the Southeast. He subsequently worked in senior accounting and finance roles for multifamily, office and retail developers in Florida, including Trammell Crow Residential. He later founded a private real estate investment advisory and due diligence firm, where he advised his public & private company clients on over $20B of acquisitions across all property classes nationwide. James also previously served on the Board of Directors for two public companies.

Purchasing & Operations Manager

Beth Johnson

Beth’s passion for building began as a child while playing with Legos. From then on, she knew she wanted to design and build homes. With a Construction Science Management degree from Clemson University, Beth has intently pursued her love for building custom homes for more than a decade. Her meticulous attention to detail ensures that everything comes together along the way to deliver the perfect home.

Sales Executive - Kiawah River

Kimberly Taylor

Kimberly’s love for design and her passion for historic architecture marry together beautifully at Artisan Custom Homes. She brings to the table a Masters’ Degree from Clemson University and the College of Charleston in Historic Preservation and work experience with the Preservation Society of Charleston. Her passion for historic architecture is well rewarded at Artisan where historic details and design elements are incorporated into modern structures to create homes that are both current and enveloped in traditional southern charm.

Area Manager (North of the Broad)

John Ott

John’s career in the residential construction field stretches for nearly 20 years. He learned the business early on at the trade level – specializing in many of the key fields required to build a residence. From there, he transitioned into managing a number of large-scale luxury, residential projects before joining Artisan Custom Homes. His experience allows him to lead his division with an intimate knowledge of all the elements of the home building process and how they should work together in a seamless manner.

Project Manager - Charleston

Parke Harris

A graduate of Clemson University, Parke joined Artisan Custom Homes after a long tenure in the landscape industry where served as a multi state regional manager. His ability to create processes and develop improved vendor relations has had an immediate positive impact on the workflow of the projects under his purview. He believes in a true team approach that maintains customer satisfaction throughout the entire construction process of the home.

Project Manager

Rob Lucas

Rob is a native of Vancouver, British Columbia and years ago fell in love with the Southeast but most notably the Lowcountry of South Carolina. During his multi-decade career, Rob has served in numerous roles on both the development and residential construction sides of the master-planned community industry. His development experience includes working closely with land planners and governmental agencies to deliver homesites for purchase. In addition, he has served on community Architectural Review and HOA Boards. On the residential side, Rob has extensive experience managing all facets of a multi-project residential construction company. This comprehensive unique understanding of the business allows Rob to keenly manage our projects with an eye for detail and great efficiency from inception to close. In his free time, Rob enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife Katie and their two children.

Senior Area Manager - Charleston

Rob Sims

Rob is a graduate of Georgia Tech with a degree in civil engineering which has served as a great foundation for his long tenure in the residential subdivision home building sector, where he has built both single family and multi-family products. Sims has worked with several national home building companies as well as for himself and is versed in managing the residential construction process and all related activities including: land acquisition, design, estimating, and project management, to name a few. He specializes in crafting a well thought out plan and timeline and then executing on it to deliver a superior product in an efficient manner.

Sales Executive - Habersham & Palmetto Bluff

Courtney Dukes

A licensed civil engineer, Courtney has been immersed in the construction world for 15 years. Starting out in commercial steel building design, Courtney quickly realized her passion lay on the customer-focused front end of a project, where her creativity and love of space, interiors, and design could be used to help steer a project in the most economic direction from the outset. After 11 years spent developing and managing a network of commercial contractors across South Carolina and Georgia, Courtney decided to move into the residential design world, based on her growing desire to be more personally connected to her clients and projects. With a background in structural design and a detail-oriented focus, Courtney believes her role is to help an owner’s vision come to life in a manner that is joyful, comfortable, and clearly-defined for all involved.

Sales Executive - Celadon & Callawassie

Cherie Tretheway

Cherie is a graduate of Auburn University and has been a sales executive in residential real estate sales for nearly a decade, but her experience runs much deeper. Both her father and husband have been in the real estate development and residential construction industry their entire careers where she served in numerous supporting roles learning all facets of the business. Her keen eye for proper architecture and functional floor plans allows her to exceed in what she loves most – matching customers with their ultimate dream home.

Manager of Architecture & Design

Travis Crabtree

For more than twenty years, Travis has shared his architectural and design talents with happy clients all over the world. With a Masters in Architecture from Savannah College of Art and Design, he even found time during his career to give back – by teaching college students these skills at the Art Institute of Austin. Working tirelessly to expand and refine our plan portfolios to meet the current trends, Travis’ true passion can be found diligently honing the details of our client’s floor plans to ensure we deliver the plan that best fits their needs.

Warranty Manager

Patrick Bunce

Originally from Surrey England, Patick has embraced the Lowcountry lifestyle for the last 28 years. He originally worked in the aviation and movie stills industry where he put his keen eye for detail to work. When he decided to build a new home 15 years ago, he was so enamored with the process that he ended up working closely with the builder to complete the project and found a new career to pursue. With his passion for detail, Patrick is the perfect person to button up a home to meet the owner’s expectations.

Superintendent - Celadon

Eddie Sauls

Eddie Sauls has been building homes in the Beaufort area for decades. Following in his father’s footsteps, he learned the residential construction business at an early age and has welcomed hundreds of happy clients to their new homes over the years. He currently manages our day to day operations in the Celadon community.

Superintendent - Habersham

Josh Hembree

Josh grew up on a farm in Tennessee and learned the building business at an early age by helping his father’s crews frame houses. He took a break from the business to serve our country around the world via the Marine Corps as an F-18 aviation technician. One of his stops was Beaufort, where the beauty of the Lowcountry easily satisfied his love for the great outdoors and allowed him to continue building homes. As you can imagine, Josh has an extreme eye for detail and thoroughly enjoys being onsite each day to ensure our jobs are running smoothly. In his spare time, he enjoys playing golf, hunting, fishing, and spending time with his daughter Logan.

Design + Interior Architectural Coordinator

Amellia Brooks

A native of Raleigh NC, Amellia was raised in a family of builders and tradesmen. She became interested in construction at a young age visiting job sites and browsing through architectural plans. She relocated to Charleston in 2014 and fed her passion working for builders in the area through her cabinetry and design business. She is a committed designer with a solution based mindset and enjoys creating spaces placing emphasis on culture and communication, or how we gather and work within our homes.

Administration

Julie Johnson

A graduate of Indiana University, Julie’s career has been heavily aligned with the master planned community industry as an award winning media planner and strategist. She brings an extreme level of detailed project management to the company as she oversees human resources, real estate closings, and an extensive list of administrative functions that keep our back office running smoothly. In her spare time, she enjoys bird watching, gardening, and Pilates.

OUR TEAM

OUR CORE

TEAM

READY TO BUILD YOUR DREAM HOME

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