Make Sunward Great Again
Not a takedown. A record. How a legacy steel company drifted, why its people left, and what it would’ve taken to fix the thing instead of burying it under procedure and nostalgia.
Context
What this is
Legacy company. Modern friction. Inside analysis.
Sunward started with Danton Wirth, an ABSOLUTE LEGEND who left his fingerprints all over the pre-engineered metal building industry. In Colorado and beyond, he helped shape half a dozen competitors by training the people who would go on to lead them.
After his passing, leadership transitioned to his daughter Amy Wirth and her husband Todd Silverman. I worked closely with both during my tenure. In my experience, they are decent people with earnest intent—but intent alone does not steer an organization through a shifting market.
I was taught who to distrust before I was taught how things worked. In hindsight, that order speaks for itself.
This project is not about vilifying individuals. It is about examining systems, narratives, and how legacy identity can harden into defensive posture instead of adaptive leadership.
Preview: Leadership Altitude
In an early chapter, we’ll examine a subtle but defining influence on Sunward’s internal gravity: how far decision-making sat from daily conditions.
This isn’t an exposé and it isn’t personal. It’s simply the operational reality that the person at the top was frequently away from the rhythm of the place—travel, other commitments, stretches out of state. None of it scandalous, all of it consequential.
When leadership engages the company mainly through summaries and end-of-week reports, normal friction reads as acceptable fluctuation. Quote delays feel procedural, not precarious. Backlog looks like volume success, rather than evaporating opportunity. Cultural strain registers as abstraction, not urgency.
Later, we’ll also look at the quieter problem beneath that distance: reporting fragmentation. At Sunward, there were easily a dozen different sources claiming to show “actualized revenue” for a given period. None of them agreed with one another, all of them were considered authoritative, and decisions were routinely made from whichever PDF or hard-banked export happened to be in the right inbox at the right moment. When the top isn’t aligned on which numbers represent reality, everyone downstream is left guessing at what they’re supposed to be reacting to, or why targets keep shifting.
We’ll return to this not to point fingers, but to understand how altitude plus inconsistent instrumentation made response, planning, and accountability almost impossible to synchronize.
Reconsidering the narrative
Six months before I arrived, two key team members —Dave Maxe and Lisa Wirth, (Amy's sister)—departed to start their own company. Their names surfaced often, framed as defectors, antagonists, or disloyal opportunists.
At first, I accepted that characterization without question. With time, exposure, and direct operational experience, that framing began to break down. People rarely abandon comfortable, well-compensated positions tied to a legacy brand to shoulder the financial and operational burden of building from zero—unless the internal climate renders staying untenable.
What became clear is that I had inherited a story rather than a full picture. Loyalty was narrated. Context was not.
Where I got it wrong
I participated in the inherited narrative. I allowed myself to adopt others' grievances as my own. This memoir will include that: not as confession, but as context for growth. The aim is not retribution—it is clarity.
Everything on this site reflects my personal experiences and opinions as a former employee. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Sunward Steel Buildings, its owners, or its employees.
About the author: Former Director of Sales at Sunward Steel. Increased annual sales substantially during tenure, then parted ways with the organization. This memoir examines how both statements can be true at once.
This site exists not to punish, but to document: how legacy, leadership style, and narrative control shape outcomes for everyone involved.