BREAKING NEW GROUND

Raymon P. Dones, Sr. (Deceased)
Co-Founder

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Mr. Dones learned electrical and plumbing trades while working as a Pullman car porter in Denver, Colorado. After receiving his electrical contracting license, he established Dones Electric, which later became incorporated as Aladdin Electric in Oakland, California. Mr. Dones co-founded Transbay Engineering & Builders in 1968  and served for two decades as the company’s CEO. Under Mr. Dones’ leadership, Transbay consistently ranked among the top 100 Black-Owned Businesses in Black Enterprise Magazine.  In 1999, Engineering New-Record (ENR) magazine named Dones one of the 125 most influential people in the construction industry in the magazine’s 125 year history.

 

Mr. Dones was also a founding member of the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) and served as the organization’s first president. NAMC is a nonprofit trade association that was established in 1969 to address the concerns of minority contractors. Today the organization has chapters in 49 states, the Virgin Islands, England and South Africa. Ray Dones was instrumental in establishing Project Upgrade, one of the first construction trades apprenticeship training programs in the United States. As a contractor, Dones had a hand in building or subcontracting a large part of Oakland’s landscape, including the MORH and Acorn housing developments in West Oakland, the West Oakland Health Center, and the early construction of Oakland City Center.