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For some, the pursuit of happiness might keep them close to home.

For Kyle Williams, following his path to success and bliss has taken him from St. Louis to New York to London to Singapore. After graduating from Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½, the Glendora native attended law school at Washington University in Missouri and started out at the prestigious Wall Street law firm Davis Polk in New York.

As a tax and securities law expert, Williams spent nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs, splitting his time between New York and London. He transitioned to PayPal, moving to Singapore in October and serves as the company’s international general counsel.

While most of his extended family lives in California, Williams knew early on that the career opportunities he was seeking would likely be outside of his community and his comfort zone, a reality he embraces.

“I am just a better person and more able to be a well-rounded human when I am doing the things that make me the happiest,” he says. “You have to be willing to go where the opportunities are and that means not limiting yourself to the circumference of opportunities in front of you.”

Though he now lives nearly 9,000 miles away, he credits his time at CPP with helping him grow into adulthood. He especially relishes his two-year stint as ASI’s attorney general.

“It was an awesome position,” he says. “Back then, no one really knew what it was, but I was like the lowercase lawyer for the student body.”

Williams also served as ASI president in 1995-96, briefly ran track and pledged the Sigma Nu fraternity.

“The big growth I had during college was in my extracurricular activities and in student government, developing my ability to be part of an organization, work with others and ultimately lead those organizations,” he says. “Growing up, becoming an adult and being responsible is what I got out of CPP.”

At every place he has lived, Williams has grown professionally and personally. He has learned how to feel at home in parts unknown.

“It is really cool to see how people from other cultures live, grow up and what’s important to them,” Williams says. “There’s a pattern of living in every single place you go and if you dive into that, it really makes working in those areas a lot of fun.”