Procore’s tees up new CEO, talks PGA deal
Coming off a headline-making PGA tour sponsorship, Carpinteria-based Procore Technologies is staying in the national spotlight as the company named its new CEO.
Set to start on Nov. 10, Ajei Gopal has been poised to take over as CEO, succeeding Procore Founder Craig Tooey Courtemanche, the company announced Sept. 22. Gopal will be taking over right after the company’s third quarter earnings, with Courtemanche set to transition to being Procore’s board chair.
The move was announced just a week after an exciting finish in Napa.
Formerly known as the Fortinet Championship and the Safeway Open, the Procore Championship, a PGA Tour event, was held Sept. 11 through Sept. 13 and featured a fantastic finish, which saw current No. 1 golfer in the world, Scottie Scheffler, claim his 19th PGA Tour win in dramatic comeback fashion.
Procore first took over as the sponsor of the PGA Tour event in 2024. It is the only time a Central Coast-based company has been the title sponsor of a large sporting event.
“We’ve been very happy with the results,” Kris Lengieza, vice president and global technology evangelist at Procore, told the Business Times. “I mean, especially this year, we can’t argue that having Scottie Scheffler win this year with a little bit of drama and a three-putt on the last hole, isn’t about all we can ask for from a title sponsorship perspective.”
A software company for the construction industry, the mix between Procore and the PGA might be lost on most, but to those in the industry, construction and golf mix quite well, Lengieza said.
“There’s a huge symbiotic relationship there. A lot of our customers love golf and there are a lot of parallels to what happens, even in maintaining a golf course and getting it ready for a tournament, which is very similar to actually building a construction project,” Lengieza said. “So when the opportunity came to us, we were really excited to step in.”
Procore declined to share details about the cost of sponsorship or how the purse of the tournament was divided up between them, other sponsors and the PGA. The total purse was $6 million.
When Procore first took over as the title sponsor — a two-year deal — the company only had 38 days before the event kicked off. So while that first event was a success, Procore really wanted to get it right in 2025.
“We knew that coming in last year, we were on a short fuse, so it was all about getting the tournament done, so coming into this year, we wanted to grow that. We wanted to partner in a bigger way with the tour and with the community, and so we took that opportunity to really help the tournament function,” Lengieza said.
That included building out all the stands, putting in place all the branding, and coordinating with all the vendors, he said. Lengieza added that in order to help the fan experience, they also did daily drone flights to capture the tournament from afar and provide some extra color for fans.
All that led to a successful event, Lengieza said. The two-year deal is now up for Procore, but Lengieza said, “We’re in active conversations with the PGA, with the tournament, about what the future will look like.”
“Overall, I think there’s a desire for us to continue. Our customers really love the event. The outcome this year was great. We really are happy with the activation of the community. We were very happy this year with the increased activation across our ecosystem, so that’s why we’re at the table, continuing to have conversations,” he said.
The title sponsorship helps raise the awareness of the Procore brand, Lengieza said, but it also allows them to give back in a bigger way. Through the money from the partnership, the company’s partnership with the Boys and Girls Club was expanded, offering kids more information about the industry through a construction education day.
“Our goal, at the end of the day, is to raise awareness for construction, raise awareness of the great people who build around us, and then raise awareness for our brand,” Lengieza said.
Another person who will be involved in keeping that sponsorship deal alive is the new CEO, Gopal.
Gopal has over 35 years of proven experience leading global technology companies at scale, most recently serving as the president and CEO of Ansys from 2017 to 2025.
Under Gopal’s leadership, Ansys more than tripled its revenue, nearly quadrupled its market value, and became the global leader in engineering simulation — joining the ranks of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100, and earning international recognition as a top employer, according to a press release.
“Procore is one of the most transformative companies in the market today. Its award-winning platform and culture have cemented its status as the clear category leader, revolutionizing one of the world’s most essential yet least digitized industries,” said Gopal. “Like Tooey, I’m passionate about empowering people to build the physical world through digital innovation and am deeply inspired by the industry’s sense of purpose and Procore’s deep customer-centricity. Tooey has built a truly exceptional company, and I couldn’t be more honored that he and the Board have put their trust in me to lead Procore through its next phase of growth.”
In a press release, Courtemanche believes Gopal will continue driving Procore’s mission of empowering employees of the construction industry through its software.
“Ajei’s experience leading a vertical software company to billions in revenue uniquely positions him to help us scale and capture the opportunity ahead,” Courtemanche said.
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