Lynn Gorguze, PMBA ’86, is driven by family. As chair and CEO of Cameron Holdings, a family office she co-founded with her late father, Vincent Gorguze, she now works alongside her two adult children, Ellie Peters McDade and Ben Peters.
She is also propelled by curiosity. No two days are alike in her role overseeing the acquisition and operation of middle-market manufacturing and service companies. “There’s always a surprise,” she says. “As one of my colleagues once put it, you come in the morning, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. You walk out thinking ‘I didn’t know that was possible.’”
Gorguze’s degree from Olin Business School laid the groundwork for her career. After graduation, she built her chops through seven years in investment banking and a stint in corporate strategy for Aldila, a producer of high-performance golf shafts. In 1993, she joined her father at the helm of their company, working out of offices in San Diego and St. Louis.
Since then, Gorguze has helped steer Cameron Holdings through more than 50 acquisitions with an aggregate transaction value exceeding $1 billion. Based in San Diego, she serves on a variety of nonprofit boards, including the La Jolla Playhouse, one of the country’s most outstanding regional theaters.
Gorguze is also a dedicated WashU volunteer. She is a longtime member of the Olin Business School National Council, served on the San Diego Regional Cabinet for nearly 30 years, and provided in-depth industry expertise to the 2023-24 Olin Brookings Commission, which examined the “silver tsunami” of ownership transitions facing aging baby boomers. In recognition of her many contributions, she received the Dean’s Medal from Olin in March 2025 and a Distinguished Alumni Award from Olin in 2006 and WashU in 2017.
Gorguze and her husband, Scott Peters, U.S. representative for the 50th District of California since 2013, are generous supporters of the business school’s Annual Fund and scholarships. They established the endowed Gloria and Vincent Gorguze Scholarship for graduate business students in 2016 in honor of Lynn’s parents.
What fuels your passion for greater access to education?
I feel strongly that education cures many evils in the world. I don’t know what kind of fallout there will be with so much pressure on universities right now, but I believe private contributions are more important than ever. It’s an easy ask. There’s a lot of need.
The difficulties facing higher education have made me rethink how important education has been to my family, especially my mom and dad. My grandparents were immigrants, and my dad was incredibly grateful for his scholarship at the University of Michigan, which allowed him to get where he was in his professional life, and now, where I am in mine.
The value of education is something I saw my whole life in my dad. I hope I’m passing this on to my kids.
How did you land at WashU?
I grew up in St. Louis and went away to school. I was a geology and oceanography major at Duke University and worked as a seismologist in the oil industry after I got out of college. That industry has its ups and downs, and it was starting to go down. I decided I wanted to work for my dad, so I moved back to St. Louis and got a job in investment banking. But I needed an MBA to understand financial statements, frankly. I could not read a balance sheet or income statement before I went to business school. I didn’t know anything about accounting.
I entered Olin’s part-time MBA program and finished after four years of working and going to school, which was challenging. As part-time students, we all banded together because we were working so hard. We had jobs, and everybody was trying to make the most of their time. It taught me the value of community.
Why do you stay involved as an alumna?
Volunteering provides opportunities to meet people you would never otherwise interact with — you all belong to WashU, and you have a passion for the mission of the institution.
Meeting other business leaders as a member of Olin’s national council has been fun. At a meeting last year, Dean [Mike] Mazzeo said, “I like connecting people,” and he pointed at me and Vanessa Okwuraiwe [MBA ’19]. We had just met half an hour before, and we had a nice talk. I said, “Well, we like each other, so you’ve done a good job.”
I often meet people who went to WashU or have a child who went there and had a great experience, which is fun. I’m super proud to be a WashU alum. The university’s reputation is growing. The older I get, the more visibility it seems to have.
