About Ray . . .
My work is an expression of my passion for continuous learning, for interacting with smart, successful people, and for helping leaders grow and develop their organizations.
Professional Background
My experience as a CEO spans 45+ years at six corporations in Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, and Florida. These companies manufactured a variety of products including leisure equipment; precision instrumentation gears; ducting and EMF/RFI shielding systems for aviation and defense; filament wound pressure vessels; and very large fabricated vessels. My responsibilities as VP-Corporate Development for a large conglomerate included strategic planning, identifying and evaluating companies for acquisition, and the performance measurement for operating divisions. For five years I directed the South Florida Manufacturing Technology Center, a consulting firm focused on assisting Florida companies with strategic planning, financial measurement, employee development, marketing, process improvement, quality systems, manufacturing, and distribution systems. I have been a Vistage Chair since 2000.
Education and Professional Affiliations
After completing a BSME degree and MBA studies at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, I began a life of continuous learning. CEOing six companies ranging from startups to a division of a large public conglomerate provided much experiential learning. Seminars on leadership, sales, marketing, advanced process and project management, Vistage Chair training in Jacksonville and San Diego, facilitation training with IAF, and coach training conducted by Corporate Coach U for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (US Department of Commerce) continued the process.
My most valuable learning has come from working one-to-one for thousands of hours with CEOs and senior executives operating dozens of organizations in a very wide variety of businesses.
Community Activity
I am committed to helping make my city and county the premier place to live, work, and raise a family. I am active in Leadership Broward, Leadership Coral Springs (where I provide leadership learning), the Tower Forum, the Coral Springs Chamber of Commerce, my church leadership council, and other community activities.
Family
My most precious activity is being husband, dad and grandpa in a family that includes eight children and stepchildren, their spouses, and twelve grandkids. They live in out in Pennsylvania (where it all started), Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, Florida, and Kleinmachnow, Germany.
