Charles Nelson

Charles Nelson, a native of New Orleans, is Chairman of Waldemar S. Nelson and Company, Inc., Engineers and Architects (NELSON), a multi-disciplined design consultancy serving industry, government, and commercial interests since 1945.  NELSON is currently one of the largest privately owned engineering firms in the State of Louisiana, employing approximately 345 engineers, architects, designers and support staff in New Orleans and Houston supporting projects on five continents. 

A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Charles received his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering in 1970.  In 1974 he received his Master of Science Degree in Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering from the University of Florida.   

Charles is a member of the Louisiana Engineering Society, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Business Council of New Orleans & the River Region, the Committee of 100, the World Trade Center of New Orleans, and the French American Chamber of Commerce. He is a prior member of the Clean Power & Energy Research Consortium (CPERC), the Civil Engineering Advisory Council of University of New Orleans, and the Business Development Leadership Council of New Orleans, and he has served on the Advisory Board for the Loyola University International Business Center, the Georgia Tech External Advisory Board, and the Board of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce.  Charles is also a member of The Rotary Club of New Orleans and serves on the Board of the Southeast Louisiana Council of the Boy Scouts of America. 

Career highlights for Charles include the award-winning projects for the Petroland L-7 oil and gas production facility in the North Sea (NYASCE, 1978), the Main Pass 299 Sulphur Mine in the Gulf of Mexico (NSPE, 1992), and the Gulf Gateway Terminal in New Orleans East (ASCE-COPRI, 2014). 

A highlight in his civic career was his tenure as President of the New Orleans World Trade Center during 2005, when Katrina visited Louisiana.  The WTC’s high-rise building had 165 windows broken by the storm, requiring a challenging repair effort involving materials, contractors, logistics, and legal challenges for the organization.  Charles’ project management experience gained from three decades of design and execution projects served him well in successfully opening the WTC building to returning tenants within two months of the devastating storm.  This was accomplished after re-opening his company’s engineering office in New Orleans just six days after Katrina’s landfall.  Each of these accomplishments drew from ‘lessons learned’ in his practice of Civil Engineering and from the mentoring he received from those in the profession locally, regionally, and nationally.