Ray Johnson

Corporate Citizenship Manager, IBM

In his role, Ray oversees the company’s community and government relations programs, along with workforce development and K-12 education reform, for a 11-state region. A leading advocate of K-12 business and education partnerships, Ray has been involved with numerous initiatives in his territory, including the push for standards and assessments in the mid-1990’s.
Most recently, Ray worked with the Governor, state legislature and the Colorado departments of Education and Higher Education to bring P-TECH schools to the state. Three opened in August 2016, and two more opened in Fall 2018. He is also currently overseeing a new offering, Teacher Advisor, which provides math lessons, strategies and resources for grade 2-5 teachers at no cost. Also, on a federal level, he worked with Members of Congress on the recent Reauthorization of the Perkins Act.

For the past seven years, he has been involved with a unique collaboration with the St. Vrain Valley School District, called the Innovation Academy, a business-education STEM summer program for K-6 students; and has served on the design team and advisory committee for the district’s first STEM preschool.

Ray has also was an integral part of IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge (SCC), a competitive grant program that deployed IBM experts to cities around the world to address their most critical challenges. At the time, it was the company’s largest philanthropic initiative, with contributions valued at more than $66 million since 2010. The City of Denver was one of more than 130 cities around the world to be awarded a grant. In 2016, Ray served as project manager for the SCC grant awarded to the City of Denver and the Denver Metro Mayor’s Caucus to assess the coordination of services for the homeless across the seven-county area. Previously, he led teams to help the City of Boulder access its utility infrastructure; and the City of Omaha to help determine the impact on costs associated with greenfield vs. infill development, designed to assist with the revitalization of the urban core.

Under his leadership, IBM has also implemented programs such as MentorPlace, an online program that matched over 300 IBM employees with 4th and 5th grade students to help with math and science skills. In conjunction with the Colorado High School Activities Association, Ray also created programs to recognize outstanding high school students for their accomplishments both in the classroom and the community, and has helped promote student council leadership development activities

Ray currently serves on the board of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, and has chaired its Education Foundation. He also serves on the Colorado Succeeds Board of Advisors; and is part of the Colorado Business Roundtable Inner Circle. Past board involvement has been with the Colorado Center for Tax Policy, Provider’s Resource Clearing House, Teaming for Results, Friends of Food for Thought, Curtis Park Community Center and March of Dimes. Ray also helped develop the Colorado Governor’s STEM Roadmap for the state.