Benjamin

Benjamin Thomas Leonard

To one degree or another, Ben has been involved in the residential construction business for much of his life, at first helping his father Charles on projects around home and later on ably assisting in building apartment duplexes in Ellis Hollow while on breaks from attending college at SUNY Oswego. After graduating magna cum laude in May 2007 with a double major in Criminal Justice and Sociology, Ben helped finish up the last of the Ellis Hollow buildings, the Magnum Opus. He then spent a year and a half in New York City, discovered that city life was not to his liking, and moved back to Tompkins County with his fiance, Zoe XiaoRong Xue.  Amidst the financial market meltdown, he decided his best job option lay with continuing on his father's business.  In April 2009, the reins of Artisan Construction were officially turned over to Ben and his long time employer, his Dad, became his first employee.  

2009 was a busy year, despite the state of the economy.  Ben's oldest brother Matthew had also moved back to Tompkins County with his family and they were in need of a decent house.  Since the family already owned a vacant lot, it was decided the best option was to build new. Nothing like throwing a neophyte into the deep end! but Ben was up for the task. Despite working several other jobs into his schedule, by November the outside of Matt's new place was completed and work moved indoors.

In December 2009, Ben married his long time sweetheart, Zoe.  In photo below are newlyweds, Ben and Zoe Leonard.