A. RAY CHARLES
*****@************.***. LinkedIn.com/in/raycharles
CORPORATE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Mission driven, seasoned leader in stakeholders engagement. Expert in building strategic partnerships
and engaging Fortune 500 and major non profit executives to advance organizational effectiveness.
Adept in establishing strong relationships with and bringing value to stakeholders, while maintaining the
value of the company brand. Possess excellent communication, leadership, coaching, and problem
solving skills with a strong focus on customer loyalty and employee satisfaction. Core Competencies
include
Vision and Strategy Ethics and Integrity Public Speaking
Influence and Inspire others CEO Peer Facilitation Training and Development
Executive Presence Thought Leadership Build Alliances
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
VISTAGE INTERNATIONAL WORLD’S LARGEST CEO MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION 2014 PRESENT
I am passionate about investing in people by first investing in the lives of their leaders. Through Vistage
international I am now combining my Executive Coaching and leadership experience to help individuals and
organizations to build more successful and fulfilling futures
AMERICAN RED CROSS Greater Chesapeake and Potomac Region 2008 – 2014
Provider of over 40 percent of the nation's blood supply, the Chesapeake Region serving over 60 local hospitals and
12 trauma centers
Program Development Manager
Launched and implemented the regions first program development strategic business unit, tasked with
both business development and sales development training. This business unit is now part of the overall
company’s best practices. Because this was a new sales model to the organization, the training extended
to not only my direct reports, but to other sales managers and cross functional teams
Training and Development Building Alliances
Led a group of churches to lay aside their competitive nature towards one another and come
together as one to host a unified community blood drive to save lives. Over 300 lives were impacted
at the local hospitals and trauma units.
For years, breaking into the African American market has been has been a major hurdle for the
American Red Cross. Though there were mega churches in our region (3000 – 15,000 members) the
donors were quite low. Presented to management that we a different approach, from transactional
to building lasting relationships, providing training in value added services, (e.g. CPR training, baby
sitting, etc.) As a result of the value added service, we saw a marked increase in donor participation.
Public Speaking Storytelling
Often sought out to perform public speaking on behalf of the organization in live media outlets.
A. Ray Charles P a g e 2
A RAY OF LIGHT MINISTRIES Chicago, IL 2001 – 2008
Provider of Executive Coaching and Leadership Development Training with an underpinning of Spirituality
Executive “Spiritual” Coach
Coached CEOs and Pastors in their areas of crisis and personal development. Also provided leadership
training to the senior leaders of these CEOs and Pastors
Public Speaking Executive Presence
Keynote speaker at the Global Ethics Institute (Melbourne, Australia) to a group of CEOs on
“Fairness and Ethics in the workplace” following the Enron Debacle
Facilitated an Executive Coaching Training and Development workshop to the Illinois MBA
association. Provided the group best practices to receive coaching as a CEO and as a C Level
executive
Coached an array of leaders (on a one on one basis) to invest in their most valuable asset (their
people)
THE OWENS GROUP Chicago, IL 1993 – 2001
Insurance and Risk Management Services
Thought Leader Build Alliances
The ethnic hair care industry has historically been insured by the high risk insurance
marketplace. Recognizing that this was purely based on perception I championed the transition
from the high risk corporate liability insurance marketplace to the standard (low risk insurance).
Leveraged knowledge base of chemical manufacturing and trained members of this trade
association as well as key corporate insurance leaders how to effectively package their true risk
exposure. As a result of this shift, the ethnic hair care industry leaders have experienced a
combined savings of over $40 MM since 1995.
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Counseling NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE OF THEOLOGY Wilmington, NC
Masters of Science in Chemical Engineering HOWARD UNIVERSITY Washington, DC
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering HOWARD UNIVERSITY Washington, DC
Associate In Risk Management (ARM)
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL Public Relation Chair
AMERICAN RED CROSS Greater Chesapeake and Potomac Region, Regional Diversity Recruitment Chair
ASSOCIATION OF DONOR RECRUITMENT PROFESSIONALS (ADRP) (2008 – 2010)
WORLD CLASS SPEAKING, INC Certified Corporate Speech Coach
THE INSTITUTES Associate In Risk Management (ARM)
COMPUTER PROFICIENCY
Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, Publisher, SharePoint Adobe Reader
Wordpress One Note Web Ex Visio