Ray received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy and his M.S. in Astronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ray has also earned graduate certificates from Boston University in Digital Strategy and Digital Leadership. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute. Ray has been awarded the Black Belt certification from the International Association of Six Sigma Certification. He is also a certified Scrum Master with the Scrum Alliance. In addition, he attended a variety of executive training programs while working for General Electric. Ray is a member of the Project Management Institute and Customer Value Creation International.
Ray spent 10 years in the Air Force. He was an instructor pilot in the T-38 Talon aircraft. Ray then transitioned into an engineering role. He was a design engineer for several flight simulators and was project manager for the Air Force's first microprocessor-based full-flight simulator. He served as the program manager for the MX missile warhead during its development and early production phases and was the program manager for the MX missile inertial guidance unit during its transition from development into production. Ray finished his Air Force experience as the Executive Officer for the Ballistic Missile Office, a 1,000-person organization responsible for all Air Force ballistic missile design, development, and production with a multi-billion dollar annual budget.
Ray spent 9 years with General Electric, working in the Aerospace business, on GE's Corporate Staff, and in the Electrical Distribution & Control business. While in the Aerospace business, he was responsible for budgets and schedules on the GE portion of the Navy Trident missile program. When Ray moved to GE's Corporate Staff he implemented Best Practices and Continuous Improvement at 9 of GE's businesses. Ray managed numerous engineering, manufacturing and services projects during this time. He also served as Program Manager for the Manager Development Course at GE's Crotonville training center, an intensive four-week training program conducted at the MBA level for selected GE managers. Ray then held several engineering management positions in GE's Electrical Distribution and Control business, including manager of design engineering for switchgear and manager of design engineering for all circuit breakers and switches. Ray played a major role in formulating and implementing GE's New Product Introduction initiative, including leading several product development projects.
As founder and president of the consulting firm Product & Process Innovation, Ray has worked with many corporations to review and improve their business strategy, engineering, manufacturing, and project management processes with emphasis in the area of product development and digital leadership. Ray also served as Chairman of an industry-wide task force charged with developing the standards and certification process for a new line of electrical products. He has provided litigation support for clients in the fields of product development and government procurement.
Ray provides training and consulting through Worcester Polytechnic Institute, China Institute for Innovation, and GoSkills.com. He training programs are customized for the client company to address unique aspects of the industry or company in addition to the best practices if industry standards. Current training programs include Project Management, Product Development, Strategy Formulation, Design for Manufacturability, Value Engineering, Finance for Engineers, and Product Line Strategy. His recent consulting clients include Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Instrumentation Laboratory, NSTAR, National Grid, General Electric, Tyco, and Cumberland Packaging Corp.. Ray has authored the book, "HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case" published by Harvard Business Review Press, was a contributing author on the book, "HBR Guide to Project Management" which was also published by Harvard Business Review Press, and the ebook "Demystifying Earned Value Management."
