Ray Cullom is an accomplished non-profit CEO with a distinguished career in the arts & culture and community development sectors here in the USA and as an expat in a number of international settings. He has a strong background in organizational and financial planning, along with wide-ranging experience as a start-up executive, change leader, crisis manager, and large-scale project supervisor. The consistent through-line is his ability to successfully enter new settings, to work productively with diverse constituencies and collaborators, and to effectively form dynamic and beneficial relationships with stakeholder groups, be they organizational staff, governance bodies/Boards of Directors, regional cultural organizations, academic leaders, governmental bodies, or corporate entities.
In 2020, in partnership with Microsoft, Ray founded EastHUB – a new type of community development non-profit with the dual goal of creating a network of new cultural gathering spaces and shared service providers, and creating a model for the development and growth for non-profits with a genuine desire to build a staff and governance body drawn from the community, truly reflective of the diversity of cultures and viewpoints of the communities they serve. Ray has also served the leadership role with a number of prominent cultural organizations and regional theaters spanning the past two decades, including The Zorlu Center in Istanbul, Turkey, Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT, The Blumenthal Center in Charlotte, NC, the historic Theatre Row complex of Off-Broadway Theaters on West 42nd Street in New York City, and the Queens Theater in Flushing Meadow Park in Queens, NY. Ray has been celebrated repeatedly for the innovative problem-solving approach he brings to each new setting, and has been recognized on a personal level as the Not-or-Profit Businessman of the Year by the NYC/Queens Chamber of Commerce, with that organization (The Queens Theatre) recognized as the Top NYC Cultural Attraction by Mayor Bloomberg’s office in 2012. He has worked extensively with governance boards as an employee and direct report, as a consultant for strategic planning, and as a Board member himself.
Ray is a graduate of the University of Chicago (AB, Anthropology), and currently lives in the New York City area with his wife, Meryl, a New York City public school music teacher, whom he met playing opposite in an Off-Broadway musical over 25 years ago. He is an avid golfer, Masters Swimmer, and Gilbert & Sullvan aficionado.
LinkedIn: Ray Cullom