Lee Anders Andersen

SLS, ALS
Commission #281
(2000.05.30)
Articled to W.L. Jamieson

Lee Anders Andersen was born in 1974, in the middle of three brothers. The boys were raised in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, where Lee learned skills in hockey and carpentry that would be the foundation of lifelong interests. It was also here that Lee was introduced to the world of surveying through his uncle, Wes Jamieson. Wes, a surveyor for Tri-City Surveys Ltd., would take the Andersen kids out for a day in the bush when he came to the area to work, fostering an early love of the outdoors in the young Lee.

After graduating from high school, Lee had planned to take a year off from school to work and explore the country. His father, however, insisted that he apply for a scholarship at Augustana College in Camrose, Alberta, warning him that he risked losing the benefit of his good grades if he waited. Lee complied, received the scholarship, and begrudgingly continued his education that fall at Augustana. Despite his reluctance at the time, he would later be grateful to his father for pushing him into making this move.

After testing the waters for a year at Augustana, Lee decided to take the advice of his father and his uncle Wes to pursue a career in surveying. He enrolled at the University of Calgary to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Geomatics Engineering, while his summers were spent working for Tri-City Surveys with his uncle. After graduating in 1997, Lee moved into fulltime work with the company and became articled to Wes. This period was a career highlight, as Lee worked on such noteworthy projects as the Northern Cree Land Entitlement surveys and the Saskatoon International Airport Protected Airspace survey. Meanwhile, he sought his P.Eng to round out his qualifications.

Lee was awarded both his P.Eng and his commission as a Saskatchewan Land Surveyor in 2000, and the following year became a partner in the company. His career was now moving along well, but Lee still had further ambitions. TriCity's Saskatoon branch was becoming overcrowded with surveyors, preventing Lee from handling his own department, clients, and projects. A remedy would soon present itself, however: the company decided that one of its members should acquire an Alberta Land Surveyors' commission, and Lee, knowing that the person selected would be placed in charge of much of the company's Alberta work, volunteered for the job.

It was arranged that Lee would article this time under Vince Voss, an acquaintance of one of the Tri-City partners, at Interprovincial Surveys in Lloydminster. After completing the articling process for a second time, Lee was awarded his ALS commission in June of 2004 - just before the double articling requirement was dropped from the program.

During Lee's time under Vince, the opportunity arose for Tri-City to purchase an interest in Interprovincial Surveys. They did so, and with his previous experience Lee was the obvious choice to manage the new company branch. In 2005, he was appointed president of Interprovincial Surveys as the remaining partners in the company were progressively bought out.

Lee married his wife Candice in 2001, and has since had three children: Venna, Jayva, and Nix, the last named for the older brother Lee lost to a 1994 car accident. Lee has kept up his hobby of carpentry work, having maintained building projects - from his father's cabin to his own house - throughout his adult life. He also continues to play amateur hockey and enjoys outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing.

Lee Andersen lives with his family in Lloydminster.

(See also biography on Alberta Land Surveyors Association web site.)