Economic Development Division Meeting: Ray Render
Ray Render was born on April 16, 1967, in Madison, TN, so he’s 59 years old as of the writing of this document. His parents were Dalton & Pat Render and his father worked at DuPont in Old Hickory and his mother was a homemaker. Ray was raised in the Neely’s Bend area of Madison so he attended Neely’s Bend Elementary, then Neely’s Bend Jr. High School before going to Madison High School and graduating in 1985.
After high school, Ray went to college at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, TN, graduating in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. While at Tech hewas involved in Student Government and was the Student Government Association Presidentduring the 1987-1988 school year.
After finishing his degree at Tech, Ray went on to work at Toshiba Consumer Electronics located in Lebanon, TN, where he worked for almost 8 years. Some of that time he was a facilities engineer and then he went on to establish their consumer electronics refurbishing department and managed that until he left Toshiba in 1997. While at Toshiba, Ray completed his MBA in the evenings at Belmont University in Nashville graduating in 1993.
Upon leaving Toshiba in 1997, Ray went to work for Bridgestone Firestone Tire Sales Company where he worked for almost 22 years mainly in sales and marketing. Ray had various responsibilities through his years there working with the medium commercial truck tire sales division and then onto the passenger and light truck tire sales division. He was fortunate enough to be able to travel the county with Bridgestone so a fun fact about Ray is that he’s been to all 50 states.
Ray’s current job is the District Director for Congressman John Rose covering mainly Sumner,Davidson and a portion of Wilson counties. The Tennessee 6th Congressional district has all or part of 19 counties and he does get around to all of these counties from time to time but he mainly stays focused on the western part of the district.
Ray has a 25 year old son, Grant, who is a graduate of UT Chattanooga and now works at Wilson Bank & Trust in Lebanon and he has a 23 year old daughter, Erica, who is also a graduate of UTChattanooga and she works for an event venue in Ringgold, GA. Both of his children are married and Ray has a granddaughter (Lilly) who is 18 months old.
Ray attends Indian Lake Peninsula Church in Hendersonville, TN, and is involved with various activities at the church. Ray is a proud member of the Hendersonville Rotary Club and he enjoyswatching various sports such as The Tennessee Titans and The University of Tennessee football in the fall and he loves doing anything outdoors in good weather anytime of the year.
In recent years Ray has participated in The Wilson County Sheriff’s Citizens Academy, Leadership Wilson County, Leadership Middle Tennessee, L’Evate (the Donelson Hermitage Leadership program) and hopes to participate in Leadership Tennessee this year.
Please RSVP to the Chamber Office – ChamberOffice@LebanonWilsonChamber.com
