December 2, 2026
People Who Build: Mike Cunningham
For Mike Cunningham, the best crews are the ones where nobody stands above anyone else.
Mike Cunningham joined Stacy Witbeck in the late 1990s as an apprentice with the cement masons in Portland, Oregon. Twenty-seven years later, he is a general superintendent, and he still holds himself to the standard he learned on the crew.
Annie, his service dog, works for Stacy Witbeck too.
Here are three ideas that shape how he leads today.
A bad seed just doesn’t fit. They become a good person or they leave.
Cunningham treats everyone on the crew the same. “We’re like a family,” he said. “My crew is always like that.”
When a skilled worker is a problem on the crew, he pulls that person aside for a conversation. Often the crew and the foreman have already handled it by then. A person who doesn’t fit the culture either changes or moves on. Mike comes from the trenches, and most people know that about him. He makes it a point to emphasize to every crew he works with that he would never ask them to do something he hasn’t done himself or wouldn’t be willing to do.
Sound Transit's Lynnwood Link Extension in 2023
Adding resources is the simplest way to relieve the stress of schedule.
The same thinking guides him when a job falls behind. Cunningham adds resources. He has been on enough jobs with broken schedules to know what pressure does to the work. People cut corners and do things wrong.
His math is simple. Two crews of 10 can do double the work. A single crew of 15 running four hours of overtime every day, plus weekends, wears down the people on it.
Sound Transit's Lynnwood Link Extension in 2023
If you work hard and you play by the rules, the rewards are very good. And it’s fun.
The third idea took him longer to learn. Cunningham describes himself as a wild, hardheaded young man. “I had a hard time being patient when I was young,” he said. What he learned was to slow down, ask questions, and get a second set of eyes on the work.
That means the specs, the work plan, and the JHA. “There’s always a team involved,” he said. Superintendents, engineers, project managers, and construction managers build the plan together, and people who have done the work before stand behind it.
Cunningham says he enjoys the hard parts of the job. He likes watching people do difficult work and seeing the finished product. When people assume construction grinds down the body, he disagrees. “It’s really enjoyable work,” he said. “It pays well.”
Sound Transit's Lynnwood Link Extension in 2023
Asked which teammates had the greatest influence on his time at Stacy Witbeck, he named Bobby Peacock and Andy Auxier. Andy was someone he looked up to and learned from, while Bobby has been by his side since the beginning. “We’re like brothers,” he said of Peacock. The two share a similar approach to their work, constantly learning from each other and pushing one another to become better leaders.
When asked what advice he would give someone who wants a career like his, his answer is direct: Follow the plan.