James Golden III lives by a creed: “Dream big. Work hard. Become legendary.” He handled the first two stages starting at a young age. Now, as the founder and CEO of Pavement Management Group, he’s striving to achieve that elusive last step.

It required baby steps to start. As a self-coined “kidpreneur,” he discovered his innovation, savvy and value very early. Applying those qualities to a career, though, was tougher business. “I did not have a plan,” Golden said. But at 19 years old, he did have a young family to support. “I knew I needed to do something,” he said, so he enrolled at COTC.

What started as “a necessary evil” brought Golden a lot of good. He earned his associate degree in drafting and design technology in 1998. An internship at the Ohio Department of Transportation got his career started. It took off when he joined a mentor as a field inspector at a road maintenance company, where he eventually climbed the ladder to director of operations. “I helped build it into a legitimate engineering company,” he said. “That was what I saw myself doing the rest of my career.”

That was not quite how it worked out. After 13 years with the company, he was forced to leave. True to his creed, he dreamt big and decided to start his own business.

Then came the hard work. Golden gleaned a lot by diving in and dealing with challenges. He connected with clients countrywide. He installed cameras on his car to capture street-level video. He helped develop an algorithm to analyze all that video, for which he enlisted COTC graduates. “As students, they had motivation, a vision and actionable skills,” Golden said. “Now, they’re building AI.”

He has been building a relationship with the college since he graduated. He not only hires COTC alumni, but he’s the president of the alumni council. For all his steadfast efforts, he received COTC’s 2023 Outstanding Alumni Award. Such a prestigious honor gives Golden legendary status at his alma mater.

To him, though, he’s just one of many people and stories that have become legendary thanks to COTC. “Just about everybody is an outstanding alum,” he said. “They improved their career, their livelihoods and their families. Those are outstanding alumni too, and COTC has a treasure trove of them.”