Mike Wongkaew

"Be clear on the goal. Be flexible on the journey."

Mike Wongkaew was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. In 1996, he graduated with distinction and received his MSCE in 1997 and his PhD in 2000, all from Purdue University.

During his time at Purdue, Mike worked as Prof. Sutton and Prof. Altschaeffl’s assistant for the CE 584 Foundation Engineering course. Purdue’s education and the assistantship in the interdisciplinary area of structural and geotechnical engineering laid a solid foundation for Mike’s professional career.

After graduation, Mike joined AECOM in Bloomington, IN to work on county bridge projects. His first exposure to tunneling occurred in 2002 when he moved to the West Coast and joined the team that designed the West Side and East Side Combined Sewer Overflow Tunnels in Portland.

For the next 23 years, Mike’s accomplishments have included innovative and significant underground projects such as:

• Paramatta Rail Link, the then-largest publicly funded contract in Sydney, Australia.
• Scarborough Subway Extension, the then-largest transit expansion project in Toronto.
• Portland CSO tunnels, the largest public project in the City of Portland.
• State Route 99 highway tunnel in Seattle, the world’s largest bored tunnel in soft ground.
• Subway projects for Los Angeles Metro and Sound Transit.

Mike now serves as the Senior Vice President for AECOM and is leading the firm’s tunnel practice for Americas. He has the responsibility for the quality growth of strategic tunnel projects and talents across north and south Americas.

Mike has been active in the tunneling industry. He represents the United States at International Tunneling Association’s working group on shaft design and construction, serves on the ASCE Underground Engineering and Construction Committee, and chaired technical sessions at North American Tunneling Conferences. He also gave a Prof. Paul Zia Distinguished Lecture at North Carolina State University on the design and construction of State Route 99 tunnel.

Mike and his wife, Ae, live in Seattle, Washington. His son, Ike, is following in his parents’ footsteps and is a second-year Boilermaker majoring in Actuarial Science and Applied Statistics.