Window of Opportunity: Finance Alumnus Returns to Alma Mater for High-Profile Job

Suspended in a metal bucket 30 feet above ground, Drew Sanders levels himself with the third floor of Building 003 and aims a stream of window washing fluid to the stairwell glass.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Peter Van Gundy, who is CEO of Clearview window washing, is setting up machinery and making sure everything is safe for his team.

“It’s a beautiful building, and there’s no way to clean the windows unless you’re on a boom lift,” he said. “Just the access is challenging, and it’s got to be done carefully.”

Drew Sanders, a Clearview employee, uses a 70-foot lift to wash windows at the Orfalea College of Business. (Photo/Pat Pemberton)

Even before scoping out the job site, Van Gundy (Business Administration, ’06) was familiar with the 4-story building, having walked in it many times as a finance student. But in those days, his future was more focused on investments than windows.

“I actually got offered a position as a financial advisor,” he said. “I sat there with the acceptance papers and said, ‘You know, it’s not that I won’t make good money at this job – I just don’t know if I’ll be happy there.’”

Raised in Gilroy to two UC Berkeley grads, Van Gundy transferred to Cal Poly from Cuesta College. While he worked a series of blue collar jobs in the college – including bartender, waiter and newspaper delivery – he was inspired by Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!”

“I never knew that you could own your own business,” he said. “As a kid, I was taught, you go to school, you get a degree, you get a job and buy a house.”

After graduation, he decided to launch a window cleaning business since he had cleaned windows part-time during school.

Peter Van Gundy, CEO of Clearview, prepares equipment for a job at the Orfalea College of Business. (Photo/Pat Pemberton)

“I was, like, ‘I liked washing windows – I’ll keep doing that just to pay my bills and earn food money and beer money,” he said.

Today, the business he runs with COO Jeremy Lemen employs nine people. The company’s previous Cal Poly jobs have included cleaning dorms windows at Slack and Grand and water pressure cleaning the water tower. The business also cleans roofs and hangs holiday lights. Roughly 80 percent of the work is residential, Van Gundy said, the rest commercial.

After he launched Clearview, he briefly worked as a real estate agent, keeping Clearview on the side. While real estate in coastal California can be financially rewarding, it’s also challenging, Van Gundy said.

“If an escrow doesn’t work out or the deal falls apart, then you might have put 40, 50 or 60 hours into this deal, and then you don’t get paid,” he said.

Eventually, he returned to Clearview full time.

“Window washing is pretty enjoyable,” he said. “We get to be outside. The Central Coast is gorgeous.”

While on the job, Van Gundy often listens to audio books – often books on philosophy or business. And while he learned a lot from his business education, owning a business mirrors Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing approach.

“There’s no shortcut to success,” he said. “There’s diligence, there’s hard work, there’s learning from your mistakes, there’s taking accountability, being willing to work on yourself, getting better at communication skills.”

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Photo gallery: Clearview window washing, co-owned by Finance alumnus Peter Van Gundy, adds a sparkle to windows at the Orfalea College of Business over Spring Break. (Photos/Pat Pemberton)

Just like working in finance, he said, owning a window washing business requires serving clients well. Unlike finance, he occasionally finds himself in really high places.

“When you’re 70 or 80 feet up, and the wind is blowing, and it’s moving a little bit, you get a little adrenaline rush,” he said.

The company owns one lift. But for the business building, which it cleaned over spring break, it rented a 70-foot lift to reach the highest windows. It also had to figure out the logistics of reaching high windows in an enclosed courtyard.

“This is definitely one of the most challenging jobs that we’ve done,” he said.

Van Gundy said he was proud of his alma mater.

“And now it’s fun to come back to serve the campus and the college because it feels really rewarding to me, personally, to bring beauty to the campus, to bring clean windows – cleanliness and sparkle.”

Peter Van Gundy is a proud graduate of Cal Poly’s Finance Area. Please support the program, helping our finance students be prepared for careers in a competitive workforce.

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