July 21, 2008

Contact: Kim Gannon
Cal Poly Alumni Association
805-756-2586
kgannon@calpoly.edu

Engineering Alum John Sweeney To Lead Cal Poly Alumni Association

John Sweeney, a Cal Poly engineering graduate and founder and CEO of Dairy Procurement Group LLC of California, is the new president of the 14,000-member Cal Poly Alumni Association, the voice of more than 130,000 living university alumni.

In addition to his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Cal Poly, Sweeney received his MBA from Wharton, and is a Professional Registered Engineer in California. In addition to serving as the 2008-10 president of the 14,000-member Cal Poly Alumni Association, Sweeney currently serves on the College of Engineering's Dean Advisory Council. He is also is a former Member of the Board of Trustees for the California State University System.

He lives in Alamo in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children. Sweeney's company, DPG, is an aggregated purchasing group for the dairy industry, purchasing supplies for nearly five percent of the dairy cows in California. He has extensive experience in management consulting, supply chain, process improvement and operations in utilities, healthcare, engineering, agriculture and financial services. As a consultant, Sweeney has led several strategic initiatives for Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente.

Prior to his consulting work, Sweeney was a Vice President at Rabobank's captive venture fund, vTraction, where he was responsible for several portfolio companies, generating investment leads and managing investment analysis in food and agricultural related exchanges and infrastructure companies. Earlier, Sweeney was a manager with Deloitte Consulting, serving clients in the Health Care and Utility industries after starting his career as a project manager for Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

In serving as president of the Cal Poly Alumni Association, Sweeney will also lead its 42-member Board of Directors. Sweeney follows outgoing president Al Amaral, the retired CEO of the university business auxiliary now known as the Cal Poly Corporation. Amaral is a 1964 Cal Poly Agricultural Business alumnus.

"I am looking forward to working with the board, administration and staff to find new ways to increase Cal Poly's mission of lifelong learning," said Sweeney. "My goal is to provide new and exciting ways for alumni from all generations to continue their involvement with Cal Poly throughout their lives."

"We are extremely fortunate to have John as our new president," said Cal Poly Alumni Relations Director Kim Gannon. "He brings a new perspective and is so very generous in giving his time and talent to serve Cal Poly."

For details on the Cal Poly Alumni Association, visit its Web site at http://www.alumni.calpoly.edu/.

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