Ray Leach is the founding CEO of JumpStart Inc. a Cleveland, Ohio-based non-profit venture development organization that has gained a national best-in-class reputation for its innovative economic development models and its ability to leverage its experience and expertise across the U.S.

JumpStart’s work focuses on assisting community leaders to maximize the job and wealth-creating economic impact of local startup and small companies with a focus on ways to assist and support firms that can dramatically improve local economic competitiveness. Ray is considered a national thought and practice leader at the intersections of public, private, and philanthropic partnerships that accelerate job creation and increase economic outcomes in communities.

Leach was a Sloan Fellow and a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management and the University of Akron. He began his career at IBM and went onto founding four startup technology companies. Ray was a founding member of the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). He also currently serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), and Invent Now, based in North Canton, Ohio, which educates thousands of U.S. kids each year in science, technology, engineering and math as well as on the board of several for-profit companies.