Building bloodline: Cullen family continuing long-standing tradition

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Out of 600 employees, there are seven members of the Cullen family working at J.P. Cullen & Sons.

Their ties to the company stretch back five generations, when first-generation Irish-American and carpenter John Patrick Cullen started building homes in Janesville in 1892.

“He was a risk-taker extraordinaire,” said Mark Cullen, J.P Cullen’s great-grandson and current chairman of J.P. Cullen, which he runs with his brother and CEO David Cullen, and his other brother and Vice President of Field Operations Richard Cullen.

Their father, John Paul Cullen, started with the company in 1952. He died in February, just as the company began marking its 125th anniversary. He was 91.

But his stamp can be found on projects spanning the state, including renovations to the state Capitol and Milwaukee City Hall and additions to Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — just as the original J.P. Cullen left his mark with the post offices and Carnegie libraries he built in places as far away as Florida, along with the more than a half-dozen significant structures he left behind in Janesville and, of course, in the family company that still bears his name.

Mark Cullen’s history with the company started in 1977, when he and David officially joined the company. Richard came on board two years later.

“We were put under very good mentors and started in estimating,” Mark Cullen said.

The brothers eventually found their marks.

Mark ultimately stayed in operations, bidding work and managing personnel, while David went into business development and Richard became a superintendent, managing about 300 to 400 tradespeople.

“We’re hands-on managers,” Mark Cullen said. “… And our employees value the fact that this is a family that is still working hard everyday and leaning in with their shoulders, just like they are.”

These days that collection of shoulders includes fifth-generation contributors Laura Cullen, Mark’s daughter and the company’s marketing coordinator; Jeannie Schultz, also Mark’s daughter and division manager of health care; George Cullen, Mark’s son and a project manager with Cullen’s industrial group; and Sean Cullen, David’s son and a superintendent.

It’s all part of an eventual run-up to changing the guard at Cullen.

“All three of us — David, Richard and I — are at that age, middle 60s.” Cullen said. “We’re starting to see people who are with us for decades retire.”

That word hasn’t been whispered in regard to the Cullen brothers. But, Mark said, he has started to enjoy less participation in the operational aspects of the business, speaking at the UW-Madison engineering department and the UW-Whitewater School of Management and Entrepreneurship about his experience in the industry — something that could turn out to be a greater part of his future beyond Cullen the company.

“It’s a nice adrenaline kick to be able to talk to young people and see their enthusiasm and feel like you’re teaching a bit. I know my brothers feel that way too,” Cullen said.

It’s also a bit of an industry service, given the intrinsic challenges of construction.

“It’s inherently a risky business. If you’re not paying attention to the details you can become a statistic very quickly,” Mark Cullen said. “So when I hear about a company starting up, I think, ‘How much guts! That’s my great-grandfather, and that’s not easy.”

The Daily Reporter: What surprises you most about your work?
Mark Cullen: Differences in communication. What I mean by that is I’m, age-wise, the oldest guy in our office, which I never thought I’d be saying. So you know you want to be relevant in what you say and how you say it and not come off as if you don’t value other people’s opinions.

TDR: What would you change about the construction industry?
Cullen: The biggest thing I think we’ve faced, not only in construction but throughout the industry in our education system, is that people who actually have a skilled trade should be very valued in our society. I think, sometimes, the skilled trades are maybe looked down upon. When kids are in high school, I don’t know, there’s just an awful lot of kids who go to college and about 30 percent of them get a degree. Where the other 70 percent wind up I don’t know, but I think it should be respected and valued.

TDR: What other job did you consider trying?
Cullen: I guess a long time ago I had a dream of playing football professionally but that didn’t quite work out. I played in college, so I got somewhat close, but a long way away yet and I played with some who did find their way to the NFL.

TDR: What’s the last movie you saw?
Cullen: ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘The Longest Day’ because my wife and I are going to Normandy to see the beaches and the national cemetery there. So as part of the preparation, it was recommended that I look at that. I’m also reading a book called ‘D-Day.’ The other last movie I saw was some cartoon with my 3-year grandchild, and I don’t remember the title.

TDR: What would you never wear?
Cullen: Suspenders.

TDR: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Cullen: Being more patient. I feel like it’s a virtue and a curse in that if you’re too laid back that doesn’t work too well, but there’s time when being too assertive doesn’t work too well either.

TDR: What would your colleagues be surprised to find out about you?
Cullen: I don’t have a lot of secrets that I can think of that my colleagues don’t know about me because I’m fairly open. I have done an awful lot of sailing offshore in Florida, and I’ve been across Lake Michigan six or seven times — a lot of blue water sailing that people might not know about.