NATHAN AND COLLEEN SANBORN
The Power Behind Quality Electrical Systems
story by JEANNE REYNOLDS photos by SUSAN DELOACH
Electricity and water can be a dangerous combination — or in the case of Nathan and Colleen Sanborn, maybe more like an irresistible attraction.
The sparks started flying when Nathan, a master electrician and partner in an electrical services company, met Colleen at the Beaufort Water Festival. Within a few years, they were married. And, interestingly, that first connection turned out to be only one of many major events in the couple’s lives that have happened during or near the Water Festival, from the birth of their first son to adopting their current dog.
PLUGGING INTO A PARTNERSHIP
Nathan is a Lowcountry native, born in Charleston and raised since he was three by a single mom on St. Helena Island. By the time he graduated from Beaufort High School in 2000, he already had several years of electrical experience under his tool belt, thanks to a school-to-work program he participated in from 10th through 12th grades. Still, he didn’t originally plan a career in that field.
“I was in ROTC in high school and was going into the military,” Nathan recalls. “But a guy from my church, who I’d been working with for five years making good money talked me into staying and becoming a partner in his business. I took classes at Technical College of the Lowcountry, and he and I became official partners in Quality Electrical Systems (QES) after high school graduation.”
The business quickly mushroomed from wiring two to three houses a year to having 10 underway at one time. With the additional dynamic of the 2008 recession, QES has gradually shifted from residential to predominantly commercial work. One of the company’s first big projects was 700 Bay Street, site of the Merrill Lynch offices at the foot of the Woods Memorial Bridge into Beaufort. Projects at schools, medical facilities, the Hilton Head Island airport, Marine Corps Air Station, restaurants, businesses, and nonprofits have followed. Residential work isn’t totally out of scope, though, such as a recently completed 25,000-square-foot home in May River. An experienced, loyal team has contributed to the company’s success: Nathan notes most of his 50 employees and subcontractors have been with QES for more than 10 years.
That success is much more than a personal achievement to Nathan.
“As a small business owner, I’m helping put food on a lot of people’s tables,” he says. “A lot of people rely on me. I take that responsibility seriously.”
GROWING DEEP LOWCOUNTRY ROOTS
Colleen arrived in the Beaufort area at just a few months old when her Marine pilot father was reassigned from Texas to the Marine Corps Air Station. Subsequent duty stations moved the family to Japan and Germany, but they returned long enough for Colleen to graduate from Battery Creek High School, where she was active on the cross country and soccer teams. She also participated in the Life Teen youth group at Saint Peter’s Catholic Church and sang in the band at teen mass. She went on to Virginia Tech University to study marketing, business, and German, but didn’t stay in the area.
“It was cold,” Colleen says of the college’s Appalachian Mountains location in Blacksburg, Virginia. “I came back.”
Meanwhile, her family always kept a toehold in the Lowcountry.
“My grandparents had a home on Fripp Island,” she says. “My parents bought it and will retire there. I also have 36 first cousins just on my mom’s side, so we have lots of family that come visit Fripp.”
Colleen has found her own professional niche as a municipal sales manager, handling government contracts for Republic Services, a nationwide environmental, recycling, and waste solutions company. She travels most days between the Florida/Georgia line to the border of South Carolina and North Carolina past Columbia, but enjoys working on Fridays from the couple’s Beaufort home. And she’s quick to say the family — which now includes sons Reagan, 11, and Rhett, 9, along with Molly Ann, a diminutive Boston Terrier-Chihuahua mix known as a “Bochi” — isn’t going anywhere.
“I love Beaufort, the small-town feel, the pace,” Colleen says. “It’s not crowded, it’s beautiful, and the people are nice.”
STRONG COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Despite running a small business, working full-time and raising two active young sons, the Sanborns still find time for boating, fishing, hunting, Fripp’s beaches, working out in their home gym, and spending time with their extended family (“We had 70 people between three houses on Fripp over the Fourth of July,” they laugh). They also enjoy travel: Favorite trips have included Iceland, Niagara Falls, Alaska, the British Virgin Islands, Cabo, and Belize.
Supporting a long list of community organizations also is high on their priority list. Recent causes include partnering with Truckers of the Lowcountry to donate 600 turkeys at Thanksgiving time, rewiring homes after fires, providing pro bono electrical work for Habitat for Humanity, buying bicycles and other gifts for needy “angel tree” children for the Beaufort County School District, sponsoring travel baseball teams, and supporting the Beaufort Academy, Saint Peter’s, and Beaufort High School booster clubs, just to name a few.
And, oh, yes, sponsoring the Water Festival.
“Our kids grew up going to it,” Nathan says. “It’s pretty much anything for the kids.”
ABOUT QUALITY ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
QES was founded in Beaufort in 1995 and has been delivering commercial and residential electrical contracting for three decades. The company specializes in commercial projects for both new construction and renovations to meet the unique needs of businesses, schools, hospitals, military bases, federal buildings, and other government facilities. QES holds Class 5 unlimited licenses in South Carolina and Georgia to serve a wide range of industries and locations.
QES specializes in managing and installing critical systems essential for safety, communication, and security, including consultation and assessment, custom design and proposal, installation and coordination, and final testing with detailed documentation and coordination with customers’ maintenance team for continued operational success.
SERVICES INCLUDE:
• Fire alarm installations and network integration
• Distributed antenna systems installation to enhance radio signal coverage throughout a facility
• Intrusion detection systems tailored to an organization’s security needs
• Access control systems to control facility access with technologies such as keycard systems, biometric readers, and restricted access zones
• CCTV and surveillance networks including proper placement, installation, and network integration for comprehensive surveillance
• High- and low-voltage electrical systems
• U.L.-certified lightning protection systems
• Commercial generators
• Sports field lighting
Learn more about the company at QESonline.net
