California Polytechnic State University’s (Cal Poly) Chief Procurement Officer, Darin Matthews, is leading one of the most ambitious procurement transformations in US higher education…
Set on the sunlit Central Coast of California, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California Polytechnic State University is located in San Luis Obispo. Widely known as Cal Poly, the university has long been recognised for its “Learn by Doing” ethos, strong engineering and architecture programmes and deep industry partnerships. It is one of the most selective polytechnic universities in the country and sits within the California State University (CSU) system, the largest four-year public university network in the US.
The CSU system, now comprising 22 campuses following a recent consolidation, serves nearly half a million students each year. It is an academic, economic and research powerhouse. It is also an astonishingly complex procurement environment covering everything from laboratory equipment to housing supplies, technology, capital projects and campus services.
Navigating this complexity through the lens of procurement is Darin Matthews, who joined Cal Poly four years ago after retiring from a previous role in Oregon. However, what he expected to be a slower-paced chapter quickly became an opportunity to influence transformation at significant scale.
Building a modern procurement function
Cal Poly’s annual spend usually sits around $200 million, although major construction initiatives in recent years have driven that figure substantially higher. To manage this, Matthews oversees two specialist procurement teams: one focused on goods and services, and the other on public works and construction. These teams consistently deliver exceptional outcomes, negotiating more than $24 million in savings during fiscal year 2024 alone – among the highest in the CSU system.