Lawrence M. Gates ('87, Civil Engineering)

Lawrence M. Gates

President, DRC Engineering Incorporated

BS Civil Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona, 1987

MBA, Pepperdine University, 1993

Lawrence M. Gates spent three months backpacking around the world after earning his bachelor’s degree at Cal Poly Pomona and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Energized by his trip, Larry returned home to found DRC Engineering Incorporated, a consulting, engineering and land-surveying firm, in 1997 with fellow Cal Poly Pomona alumnus Warren Williams Jr. The company’s projects have included The District at Tustin Legacy, the Chino Spectrum Towne Center and the Burbank Empire Center.

“My confidence in the workplace came from the superior and practical education I received at Cal Poly Pomona, and I always felt better-prepared and that I was more knowledgeable than other engineers with degrees from competing universities throughout the country,” Larry says.

Larry is on the board of the Bourke Family Foundation, a charitable organization that delivers lights to impoverished schools in Africa, and is a member of the Orange County Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).