Locations
Morgan Construction Co., Inc.
Vice President Operations
Key Contacts
Owners, Principals & Senior Executives
Jeffrey K. Morgan's Bio
Jeff founded Morgan Construction Company in 1983 and has built the company and its reputation for service, reliability and integrity one market segment at a time for 37 years. Under Jeff’s leadership the company has built long-term relationships with several key customers spanning multiple decades and hundreds of successful projects orchestrated in a team atmosphere. Jeff leads with a customer first mentality with the belief that Morgan can’t succeed if its customers don’t succeed.
Jeff led the company successfully through the great recession with careful reduction in overhead and strategic diversification that allowed the company to maintain profitability throughout that cycle and keep core staff and resources. His leadership style and ability are key reasons why top employees have come to Morgan and remain there for the duration of their careers.
Jeff is a native of Chattanooga and a graduate of The Baylor School and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a degree in business.
Walter L. Ford, Jr.'s Bio
Walter joined Morgan Construction during the company’s second year after working on major construction projects in four states with a national general contractor. Walter has played a key role in the advancement and success of the company for 35 years as the company’s second employee and deserves much of the credit.
As the company grew, Walter’s role expanded to Vice President of Operations and Pre-Construction Services. Operationally, Walter is responsible for four Project Managers and 12-15 Superintendents. His pre-construction role involves the management, schedule building, expediting and entitlement procurement of large, negotiated projects where full pre-construction services are provided. Walter also serves as the company’s LEED accredited professional, a designation that is not easily attained, allowing Morgan to complete with World’s first LEED Platinum fixed based operation facility. Further, Walter oversees corporate safety and is a fully certified Occupational Safety Specialist by OSHA, the highest designation in the general construction industry.
Walter is a native of Galveston, TX and studied Civil Engineering at Texas A & M University.
Estimating, Purchasing & Preconstruction
Clint Underwood's Bio
Clint Underwood joined Morgan Construction in 2015 as an Estimator. Before onboarding with the Morgan Construction team, Clint spent eight years working in various construction fields obtaining his OSHA 30-hour safety training. He has quickly escalated from Estimator to Senior Estimator and has worked diligently over the years to gain the respect of customers, owners, design teams, and subcontractors. His day-to-day goal is maintaining the trustworthy relationships formed during Morgan Construction's 37-year history.
He now serves as Vice President of Estimating and provides direction, guidance, and overview of the estimating staff. He is responsible for all estimating department functions, including hard bid and negotiated cost estimating and budgeting. He coordinates preliminary site visits, handles plan and specification reviews, final pricing, bid and proposal preparation, and other tasks associated. Clint's primary role is ensuring that each Morgan project stays within budget and serving our client's needs.
Clint graduated from Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia, obtaining a BS in Construction Management.
Phillip D. Higginbotham's Bio
Phillip joined Morgan Construction in 1994 and has served as V.P. of Estimating for 25 years. Prior to joining Morgan, Phillip served as V.P. of Estimating for a national general contracting firm for 26 years. Joining Morgan in its 12th year, Phillip’s abilities and track record helped transform the company by separating the disciplines of Operations (building work) and Estimating (pricing work). This transformation has allowed the company to expand its work load and streamline efficiency. Phillip is considered by industry peers to be one of “The Best Estimators in America”.
Phillip’s project experience includes retail, multi-family, multi-level office buildings, condominiums, apartments, parking garages, skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, industrial, manufacturing, distribution facilities and major renovation and adaptive re-use projects. While Phillip is an incredibly accurate and reliable finished plans and specs Estimator, he excels in the area of conceptual budgeting and pre-construction services both sitework and building portions of a project.
Phillip is a native of Gadsden, AL and a graduate of Auburn University where he studied Building Science.
Operations
Matthew Williams's Bio
Matt joined Morgan Construction as a Project Manager in 2013. As a third-generation contractor, Matt grew up in the industry with experience in residential and light commercial construction experience from a very early age. Since starting with the company, he has managed major multi-phase renovations for institutional and senior health care, interior buildouts, educational facilities, large retail, industrial and new ground-up construction projects.
Matt serves as the Vice President of Operations and is responsible for the profitable execution of all company projects, assigning duties, and initiatives. He is also responsible for the overall planning, scheduling, safety, and staff coordination for each project opportunity. Ultimately, Matt ensures that the company lives up to entrusted standards in project safety, customer-centered delivery, operational integrity, and exceeding expectations and quality without compromise.
Matt studied building science at Auburn University and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a BS in Engineering Management and an MS with a concentration in Construction Management.