Executive looks to build new business

In the late 1990s, when Andy Stultz was in a leadership program for engineers at GE, he was part of many meetings called the “voice of the customer.”

The idea was to block out internal agendas and squabbles to ensure the company keenly paid attention to the end-user and client. Stultz, now in commercial construction on the Gulf Coast, aims to bring that approach to his latest venture: Atlas Construction, a Sarasota-based firm he founded earlier this year.

A member of the Sarasota County Planning Commission and a founding member and past president of the Enterprise Charlotte Foundation, Stultz was an executive with Sarasota-based Halfacre Construction for nearly a decade. He planned to go out on his own for several years, he says, but the recession delayed that effort. “I think it's an opportune time to do this,” “Stultz tells Coffee Talk. “There's a lot of work out there.”