Mike Perdue: Experience, Leadership and a Lifetime in Guilford County

Mike Perdue is a Greensboro native whose story is deeply connected to the community he now hopes to represent on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. He grew up near the Greensboro Coliseum, attended Guilford County schools and GTCC, and built his career in the same community that raised him. For 32 years, the Greensboro Coliseum Complex — now anchored by First Horizon Coliseum — has been Mike's professional home. Through decades of hard work and increasing responsibility, he rose into executive leadership and today serves as Director of Maintenance & Production, overseeing the demanding facilities and production functions behind one of the region's most important public entertainment complexes. The Greensboro Complex and Tanger Center both currently identify Mike in that leadership role.

Mike's work is much more than keeping buildings operating. His career has required him to navigate multimillion-dollar capital projects, contractors, procurement, infrastructure, maintenance systems, budgets, personnel needs, schedules, regulatory requirements and the unexpected problems that come with managing major public facilities. He has managed or helped lead significant City of Greensboro projects involving facilities such as the Greensboro Aquatic Center and the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts, and city records have repeatedly identified him as a responsible Coliseum official on major construction and building-systems contracts. In 2026, Mike said he was managing approximately $20 million in bond-funded Coliseum projects as well as projects supported by an additional $30 million in state funding. That combination of financial responsibility, project oversight, staffing challenges and day-to-day problem solving gives Mike the kind of practical management experience he believes is badly needed on a County Commission that routinely makes decisions involving millions of taxpayer dollars.

Mike is also an entrepreneur who understands government from the perspective of someone who has had to meet a payroll, satisfy customers, control costs and make a business work. He began his working career more than four decades ago as an electrician's helper and went on to build his own electrical contracting company, M&D Electric, which he has led as President for more than three decades. Mike is a licensed Unlimited Electrical Contractor and has spent approximately 35 years in the electrical contracting business. His success in both the public and private sectors has taught him that organizations cannot simply spend their way out of problems. Leaders have to establish priorities, manage people and resources effectively, understand what things actually cost and hold themselves accountable for the result.

Despite his professional success, Mike has remained grounded in the community where he grew up. His career has put him alongside employees, tradespeople, contractors, business owners, public officials and residents from every part of Greensboro and Guilford County. Mike has said publicly that he does not view county government through a Republican-versus-Democrat, Black-versus-white or one-group-versus-another lens. He believes taxes, public safety, schools and county services affect everyone, and he points to his ability to work with people regardless of political affiliation as one of the strengths he would bring to the Board.

It was that combination of lifelong local roots and practical management experience that ultimately pushed Mike from concerned citizen to candidate. Long before his name appeared on a ballot, he was appearing before the Guilford County Board of Commissioners questioning taxes and government spending. Public records show Mike urging commissioners to hold the line on taxes as far back as 2010, and in 2026 he became an increasingly visible advocate for taxpayers during the debate over property revaluation and the county budget. Mike believes government has essential responsibilities, but he also believes rising budgets demand greater scrutiny: What are taxpayers paying for? What is working? Where is money being wasted? And are residents receiving better services in return? He is running for County Commissioner because he believes his experience managing people, budgets, contractors and complex public projects can help bring common sense, accountability and a stronger taxpayer voice to county government.