Ray Ely, Partner

Ray Eby has had a wide-ranging career. From early days cleaning fish, driving truck, and leading juvenile delinquents on 40 days wilderness adventures to captaining numerous M&A transactions, driving enterprise-wide transformational strategies and leading turnarounds for multibillion dollar businesses. Ray led M&A deals for complex hardware and software solutions providers, material science businesses, and global CPG brands. He ultimately served as the President/CEO of a wide range of global businesses, from old line industrial powerhouses to market leading safety brands to contract manufacturing

The one common element across Ray’s experience was the need for new strategies and approaches. Ray developed a keen sense for breakthrough ideas that excite key stakeholders AND energize the whole team that will be responsible for making it happen. The situations varied widely, but Ray found success in a wide range of challenging situations—from organizational dysfunction, to bottom line challenges, to achieving transformative changes that seized market opportunities.

Mobilizing the team proved to be the critical component to success across all situations. Finding the way for a leadership team to rally around the challenge, engage their teams to design an executable plan that delights stakeholders, and then going out to make it happen is a high calling for leaders. Helping people do this and deliver for their organizations is what Ray does.

Ray is a lifelong learner and teacher on a wide range of business and business-related topics. He currently is the Visiting Executive in Residence at Gonzaga University and lectured and taught elsewhere, including at the University of Minnesota, University of St. Thomas, the Marshall School of Business at USC. He regularly serves on the boards of charitable and community organizations in and around his home place of Saint Paul Minnesota. He and his wife served as foster parents and raised five children and enjoy watching them have their own adventures in the world.