In 1987 Andrew started as a franchisee in Toronto in what was then called AAA Student Painters. After holding both DM and GM positions, in 1991, at the age of 26 he requested the opportunity to set up operations in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest USA. In 1993 Student Works Painting was officially created.
In those early years the company first operated out of Richmond, then moved to a basement office suite on Broadway & Oak in Vancouver. Like most small business owners, he struggled for the first few years to keep the lights on.
Andrew was passionate about systems and processes and the relentless pursuit of creating seamless procedures is the foundation by which the company was built.
In 2003, his wife Lianne was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The result of that has been an ongoing fundraising initiative for the MS Society of Canada that he was very proud to spearhead and be a part of.
In 2012, after years of trying to understand what was causing some health concerns, he was diagnosed with Frontal Temporal Degradation, a rare neurological condition. The following year the company was restructured, and Andrew appointed Lianne and Dan Cripps as co-owners, with Dan taking over the day-to-day operations.
In the fall of 2016, at the age of 51, Andrew passed away from complications of FTD.