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Ray Anderson
Founder and Chairman Interface, Inc.
Ray graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with Highest Honors in 1956 and with a bachelor's degree in
industrial engineering. He learned the carpet and textile businesses through 14-plus years at various positions
at Deering-Milliken and Callaway Mills, and in 1973, set about founding a company to produce the first free-lay
carpet tiles in America -- Interface, Inc.
He developed a partnership with Britain's Carpets International Plc.
that year and set up operations in LaGrange, Georgia. Ten years later, Interface took over Carpets International.
Today, Ray commands the world's largest producer of commercial floorcoverings. After founding Interface in 1973,
Ray and his company revolutionized the commercial floorcovering industry.
More recently, Ray has embarked on a
mission to make Interface a sustainable corporation by leading a worldwide effort to pioneer the processes of
sustainable development. Named one of America's "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 1997 and 1998 by FORTUNE magazine,
Interface has diversified and globalized its businesses, with sales in 110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four
continents. Ray received the inaugural Millennium Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1996, and
was named co-chairman of the President's Council on Sustainable Development in 1997. He was also recognized in 1996 as
the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of Year for the Southeast Region, and as the Georgia Conservancy's Conservationist of the
Year in 1997.
In January 2001, the National Academy of Sciences selected Ray to receive the prestigious George and
Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development, the first corporate CEO to be so honored, and in
September of that year, the SAM-SPG Award Jury presented the Sustainability Leadership Award 2001 to Ray in Zurich, Switzerland.
His book, Mid-Course Correction, (Chelsea Green, 1998) describes his and Interface's transformation to environmental
responsibility.
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