Meet the Team

Ray Neal, President, Leed AP

Ray Neal serves as President of Sovereign Cooper and has more than 20 years of construction experience. Ray has managed and coordinated the safety activities for various construction projects specializing in large scale facilities including K12, Higher Education, Transportation, Municipal, Aquatic, Office, and Retail. His history speaks to his proven track record of delivering projects ahead of schedule and under budget. Ray is an excellent communicator who truly understands the value of working with the clients’ individual needs and job site to ensure that the project is not only successful on paper but in the field. He goes into every single project with the objective of having satisfied clients and successful projects..

Jim Cooper, Principal

Jim Cooper contributes more than 30 years of specialized construction management experience to Sovereign Cooper. Beginning his career while still in high school, he joined the family business serving as a laborer, carpenter’s helper and assistant project manager before graduating from Auburn University. Learning the business from the ground up has enabled him to gain valuable expertise in multiple facets of the company. Jim manages subcontractor relationships and works closely with owners and consultants in the planning, schematic and design development phases of each project. Jim can provide creative solutions to budgetary, technical, and logistical challenges during the early phases of your construction projects.

Beth Trice, Corporate Secretary

Beth graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from Florida State University. Her professional career has also included marketing, retail and accounting management. She is charged with full responsibility for general accounting, payroll accounting, and cost accounting. She does this for office services, financial and banking, credits and collections, insurance. As well as the rendering of all necessary reports to federal, state, county, and municipal authorities for the preparation of management reports. She also oversees the employment, training, and supervision of employees in that department.

Joe Hewett, Superintendent

Joe Hewett has more than 20 years of construction experience as a superintendent in the construction industry. Duties included quality control and managing the day to day site activities amongst trades, overseeing the quality of work and managing project schedules from start to finish. He is efficient in providing leadership, motivation and support with all personnel within the workplace environment and on the job.

Buddy Pickle, Superintendent

Ronald “Buddy” Pickle has 40 years of construction experience performing all phases of construction. Prior to his construction career he served three years in the U.S. Army as an electronic technician. Ronald maintains a wide range of experience including aquatic centers, governmental, correction facilities, schools and poultry facilities. Buddy’s attention to details proactively spots many issues and helps keep the project on schedule. He also understands the impact of construction on the community and coordinates to head off potential concerns.

Michael Hatcher, Principal, Ph.D

Michael Hatcher has been the driving managerial force at Sovereign since2007. Before founding Sovereign,Michael worked for an engineering services company, as a project manager. As a LEED AP, he has completed a LEED certified renovation project which achieved Gold level certification in Charlotte, NC.
Dr. Hatcher is committed to the continuous improvement of the construction delivery process, specifically the manner by which projects are procured and executed. As a result, his core areas of expertise and education are related to integrated project delivery and collaborative construction practices.

Todd Davis, Director of Preconstruction

Todd Davis has more than 15 years of construction experience as a project estimator, manager, and superintendent. Todd is highly proficient on all phases of the construction process from the ground up and exceeds in providing value engineering options for our clients as well as contract buyout with subcontractors. He has demonstrated his ability to be a valuable resource to aid our owners in cost control through pre-construction services. Todd has a proven track record of being proficient in take-off and estimating services.

Kristin Edwards, Project Manager

Kristin Edwards has more than 20 years of construction experience as a project engineer, manager, and scheduler.
Kristin is highly proficient on all phases of the construction process from the ground up and exceeds in scheduling services and providing detailed documentation and communication during both the preconstruction and construction process. She has demonstrated the ability to be a valuable resource to aid our owners in ensuring our team stays on task during start-up and construction. Kristin also has a proven track record of being proficient in estimating services and plan review and plays an essential role through all phases of our projects.

Jorge Abarca, Superintendent

Jorge Abarca has more than 22 years of experience as a project superintendent. HIs experience includes ground up construction, renovations as well as interior buildouts. He is fluent in Spanish and English and is also OSHA certified. He is an effective communicator and provides excellent leadership and motivation on the jobsite. His responsibilities include scheduling and supervising sub-contractors, performing regular inspections during all phases of work for quality control.