Alumni Spotlight: Randy Mees ’83
Director of Design, New Product Development at Edwards Lifesciences
Associate of Arts in Design Drafting Technology, 1983
When Randy Mees arrived at Cerritos College in the early 1980s, he didn’t have a clear path—only an open mind and a desire to learn. At the time, college wasn’t strongly encouraged, and most students were expected to head straight into the workforce after high school. But Randy sensed there was something more waiting for him.
“Those early years were about discovery,” he reflects. General education classes broadened his thinking, but it was the Design Drafting Technology program that truly sparked his interest. “I took every class they offered,” Randy recalls. “Most instructors were active or retired aerospace engineers and designers, so they really knew their stuff.”
Professors like Allen Frankley, Ed Weaver, and Bud Avery helped Randy gain a solid technical foundation. Avery taught him a full year of Tool Design—training that proved essential for launching his career. Leslie Holt, then a Rockwell VP, taught Descriptive Geometry, a class so impactful that he still applies those skills in his work today.
In 1982, Cerritos College introduced a revolutionary new technology: Computer-Aided Design (CAD). It was so new, even the faculty were learning it for the first time. Instead of a traditional course, they created an experimental, non-credit class and hand-picked 20 students to explore this game-changing tool. Randy was one of them.
“They told us companies were already reaching out to hire students who had CAD experience,” he remembers. That opportunity became real when Cerritos helped connect him to his first full-time job at Robertshaw Controls, an environmental systems manufacturer. He had just earned his Associate of Arts in Design Drafting Technology.
At just 20 years old, Randy began working as a Tool Designer, where he helped integrate the first CAD system—now an industry standard.
That job marked the beginning of a thriving 42-year career in design technology at the intersection of research, development, and manufacturing. In 2000, Randy joined Edwards Lifesciences, one of the world’s leading medical device companies, where his work has included life-saving Class III heart and vascular devices. He also earned his Bachelor of Science in Information Systems from the University of Redlands that same year.
Today, he serves as the company’s Director of Design.
His journey came full circle when he was invited to join the Cerritos College Technology Advisory Board, a role he held for over 20 years. He later returned to the classroom as a part-time instructor, teaching engineering technology classes, including the very course that launched his own career: Reading and Interpreting Drawings.
“It was surreal,” he says. “To stand where my instructors once stood, and to give back what was given to me. It remains one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I owe everything to Cerritos College.”