John J. Ray III

John J. Ray III (born January 1959)[1] is an American attorney and CEO who specializes in recovering funds from failed corporations.[2][3][4] He was appointed CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in the aftermath of its November 2022 collapse. He previously served as chairman of Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., a company tasked with recovering creditor funds from Enron in the wake of its accounting scandal and subsequent collapse.[5][6]

John J. Ray III
Testifying to the United States House Committee on Financial Services, December 2022
BornJanuary 1959 (age 64)
EducationUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
Drake University
Occupation(s)Attorney, CEO of FTX

Early life and education

Ray grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He is the son of union plumber John J. Ray Jr. and his wife Florence. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Drake University.[7][8][9]

Career

Ray started his career at Touche Ross, an accounting firm that later merged into Deloitte, before moving to the law firm Mayer Brown in 1984 and then to Waste Management. Soon after he was hired as general counsel of Fruit of the Loom in 1998, the clothing company posted massive losses and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, with Ray managing the sale of the firm's assets.[10]

Having led one reorganization, Ray formed Avidity Partners LLC, a firm specializing in serving as a receiver, trustee and claims agent in insolvency proceedings. Clients included AbitibiBowater, National Century Financial Enterprises, Pac-West Telecomm[11] He formed a new firm, Greylock Partners, providing similar services to Nortel, Residential Capital, Overseas Shipholding[3] and others. In 2019 Greylock changed its name to Owl Hill Advisory.[12]

After Enron emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2004, Ray was appointed to chair the effort to recover assets for creditors through litigation against numerous banks. He served in that role through 2009. Under Ray’s leadership, the company returned $828.9 million to its creditors, which Ray said was nearly 52 cents on the dollar.[6]

Starting in 2010, Ray was the principal officer of the bankrupt Canadian telecommunications company Nortel.[6]

In 2014, Ray was appointed as an independent board member for GT Advanced Technologies.[6]

In 2016, Ray managed a trust which liquidated the assets of the major subprime mortgage services company Residential Capital.[6]

When cryptocurrency company FTX declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, Ray was appointed to succeed Sam Bankman-Fried as the company's CEO.[13] Six days later, in a filing with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Ray stated that in over 40 years of his experience in dealing with insolvencies, he had never encountered "such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here".[14][15][16][17] In addition, he stated that FTX was managed by "a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals".[18]

According to FTX's court disclosures, the company pays Ray $1,300 per hour and a $200,000 retainer fee.[19]

References
  1. "John RAY personal appointments". Companies House. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  2. "New FTX chief slams 'complete failure of corporate controls' at crypto exchange". Financial Times. November 17, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  3. Knauth, Dietrich; Pierson, Brendan (November 15, 2022). "FTX's new CEO helped bolster Enron victims' recovery". Reuters.
  4. Cohen, Ben (December 15, 2022). "Does FTX's New CEO Have the Worst Job in Corporate America?". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  5. "Enron's Liquidator to Oversee FTX's Massive Crypto Bankruptcy". Bloomberg Tax. November 11, 2022.
  6. Randles, Jonathan (November 15, 2022). "New FTX CEO Unwound Enron and Other Major Corporate Failures". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
  7. "John James Ray Jr". Legacy.com. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  8. Sachdev, Ameet (November 4, 2007). "'Pit bull' fights to pick up Enron's pieces". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  9. Parnass, Larry. "This St. Joseph's grad is in charge of what remains of FTX". The Berkshire Eagle. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  10. Sachdev, Ameet (November 3, 2007). "'Pit bull' fights to pick up Enron's pieces". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on November 11, 2022.
  11. Hallman, Ben (May 1, 2008). "John Ray III has Collected Billions for Enron's Creditors". The American Lawyer. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  12. Ray, John (April 19, 2019). "POST-CONFIRMATION QUARTERLY SUMMARY REPORT No. 8 (UNAUDITED" (PDF).
  13. "'Complete failure of corporate controls' at FTX, says new CEO". Al Jazeera. Reuters. November 17, 2022. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  14. Goswami, Rohan (November 17, 2022). "Never seen 'such a complete failure' of corporate controls, says new FTX CEO who also oversaw Enron bankruptcy". CNBC.
  15. Yaffe-Bellany, David (November 17, 2022). "New Chief Calls FTX's Corporate Control a 'Complete Failure'". The New York Times.
  16. Goswami, Rohan (November 17, 2022). "FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows". CNBC.
  17. Ray, John Jay (November 17, 2022). "Declaration Of John J. Ray III In Support Of Chapter 11 Petitions And First Day Pleadings". United States Bankruptcy Court For The District Of Delaware. Archived from the original on November 17, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  18. Brooks, Khristopher J. (November 17, 2022). "FTX's new CEO: "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure"". CBS News. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
  19. "FTX businesses owe more than $3bn to largest creditors". Financial Times. November 20, 2022. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
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