Mike & Diana Price

Meet Mike & Diana Price

Mike & Diana are residents of Livermore, California, a quaint Bay Area town with expansive rolling hills, miles of vineyards, and world-class wineries. Mike graduated with a finance degree, while Diana was a Nutrition major.

Mike and Diana met at Cal Poly through being in the same circle of friends, but it wasn’t until five years after college that they started dating. They have two children, Austin and Amanda. Austin is a recent graduate of Boise State and Amanda, the third Mustang in the family, is a junior and has played on the Women’s Basketball team.

After graduating from Cal Poly in 1990, Mike’s main career focus has been with Bay Area Concretes, a family-owned construction company that has been a part of the family for over 40 years. He has been involved at every level of management but has been the CEO for 16 years. In 2019 he brought Ryan Chance on as President, and today Price owns Bay Area Concretes with Chance as well as Jon Vasquez, a fellow Cal Poly graduate.

Mike has implemented the Cal Poly “Learn by Doing” motto into his business. He says his company “works with architects and their visions on what they can do with concrete.”

Bay Area Concretes has worked with prominent Bay Area tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, and more, as well as recently working with Cal Poly to develop the new Scout Coffee on campus.

Giving Back to Create a Better Future

It was through his daughter coming to Cal Poly summer basketball camps as a girl that got Mike reconnected with Cal Poly. This is when Mike first came back to his stomping grounds and noticed that the campus, specifically the athletics facilities, had barely changed since he was there in the 80s. Taking his daughter to these camps opened Mike’s eyes to the idea of giving back to create a better future for the athletics program. He believes that it’s difficult to recruit the best with old facilities, and Mike wanted to do anything he could to see Cal Poly athletics thrive.

“Being back with my daughter in the same old gym made me think that giving back to athletics can go a long way towards the good of everyone at Cal Poly! If my daughter went there someday, I wanted it to be a better place for her.”

Mike sees through his time at Cal Poly and continued involvement that the Mustangs are “goal-setters and achievers,” which makes him want to be associated with the Cal Poly community on multiple levels. It is meaningful for him to support Cal Poly athletics since this is his alma mater, and he wants to see the teams get better each year. Mike specifically is involved with basketball, baseball, and football. Academically, he is also involved in career fairs and various events in the construction management department, the major most related to his business.

A recent project Mike was involved with at Cal Poly was the construction of the new improvements at Baggett Stadium and Bob Janssen Field, where Bay Area Concretes renovated the main entrance and Ozzie Smith plaza area. Mike says a moment that stands out from this project was meeting Robin Baggett, an inductee of the Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame, and namesake of the Cal Poly Baseball Stadium.

A highlight from the opening ceremony for Mike was when Robin thanked him for what he had done to support the project. For Mike, it is the genuine interactions and the Cal Poly community that makes giving worth it.

Mike loves coming back to the Baggett Stadium to watch the baseball team compete because of the sport itself, but also because of the sense of pride that comes along with being an alumnus and supporter of a world-class athletics facility.

Mike’s overall hope is to give back in order to make Cal Poly a better place for future generations. His pride for his alma mater goes further than just wanting to see Cal Poly thrive in one area such as athletics–Mike truly cares about all aspects of being a Mustang, and this is evident in his character and genuine love for Cal Poly.