Construction Management Alum Contributes $25,000 Challenge Gift During this Year’s Poly Gives
Tom Case (Construction Management, ‘86) is providing a $25,000 match gift to the College of Architecture and Environmental Design Fund for Excellence during this year’s Poly Gives.
Case said he chose the college's general excellence fund for his match challenge because it provides the dean the flexibility to choose where to allocate funds raised in order to support student success across all departments.
Case has been an enthusiastic Poly Gives donor in the past, before deciding to up his involvement and sponsor a match challenge in 2025. He hopes his example will inspire other alumni and supporters to join in and get involved.
“As members of the Dean's Leadership Council, we want to model the behavior we expect from our industry peers," he explained. “We want to participate with the college, engage with the students, and provide feedback to the faculty. And that's with our time, but it's also with our dollars. We've benefited from the education we received there. So, it's a way to give back and it's also a way to invest in the future for these students and the faculty.”
Case maintains close ties to Cal Poly. He previously served on the Construction Management Department’s advisory council, and for the last 10 years has served on the college’s Dean’s Leadership Council. He said he likes staying connected to the students, faculty, and administration because Cal Poly is producing the next generation of leaders in the industry, and that's exciting.
Case has a long family history in the construction industry, with both his father and grandfather working in construction. Case was raised in Los Altos Hills in the Bay Area and attended UCLA after high school, but a visit to Cal Poly during his second year sparked his interest in transferring.
“I didn't have aspirations to get into the business,” explained Case. “I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I just fell in love with Cal Poly. San Luis is just a wonderful place, and Cal Poly has a unique character about it. I transferred in ‘82 and never looked back.”
When comparing the two schools, he says Cal Poly pushed him harder academically, which ultimately helped him become a better student.
“My first quarter at Poly I took physics, calculus, a descriptive drawing class and a perspective drawing class, and I didn't do very well,” he recalled. “But that experience taught me how to study, how to prepare, and I found partners who helped me through class, partners who were smart and experienced, and I realized I wasn't alone. And then the next quarter, I was on the Dean's list.”
Case has had a distinguished career in the construction industry, most notably at Granite Construction where he worked for 27 years starting right after graduation. During that time, he worked in various departments and functions including estimating, engineering, and project management. He eventually ran a business unit and was a senior vice president and an officer at the company.
“I had a really long, robust career with Granite, and loved the company, loved the culture,” he said.
After Granite, Case moved on to Sundt in Arizona where he was the COO and board member of the company, and then to Replay Destinations, which is a Canadian developer that builds resorts in places like Park City, Utah, where he now lives. When the pandemic hit, Case decided to start his own consulting business, TCM Services LLC, doing management consulting. He credits much of his success to Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing ethos, which helped him start his career on the right foot.
"I think what Cal Poly teaches is the actual act of building something,” he said. “We learned how to build cost estimates. We learned how to build schedules. We learned how to do pro formas. We got a lot of experiential learning. I think the motto still holds, and there's a practicality to the students that I see come out of there.”
He offered the following advice to current Mustangs who are at the very start of their career in the construction industry:
“Keep working hard. Realize that this is just the beginning of your journey, but you've got a bright future. And the industry of which I've made my life and my career is a wonderful industry. Stay true to your values and enjoy the ride, because it's fun. It's a fun ride.”
