Dr. Ray Perryman is President and CEO of The Perryman Group, an economic research and analysis firm based in Waco, Texas. His firm has served the needs of more than 2,000 clients ranging from major corporations to small startups and from local communities to the federal government. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Perryman has helped recruit corporations providing tens of thousands of jobs through economic development work, resolved billion-dollar legal issues, and revamped public policy through impact assessments and other studies. His firm has measured economic impacts for corporate locations and expansions involving billions in investments, and his economic forecasts are used by corporations and government agencies alike.

He has been honored with many prestigious awards including the Outstanding Young Person in the World in Business and Economic Innovation, one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans and Ten Outstanding Young Persons in the World and the 2012 Texan of the Year. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2004. Dr. Perryman has been honored by the Texas Legislature for his “tireless efforts in helping to build a better Texas”.

Dr. Perryman has authored several books and more than 400 academic papers and has served as President of both the Southwestern Economic Association and the Southwestern Society of Economists. In the professional arena, he has authored more than 2,000 trade articles, publishes a subscription forecasting service and a monthly newsletter, writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column, hosts a daily radio commentary, and appears regularly on National Public Radio.

Dr. Perryman holds a BS in Mathematics from Baylor University and a PhD in Economics from Rice University. Dr. Perryman has been called a “genius” by The Wall Street Journal, a “world class scholar” by Business Week, the “unofficial state economist” by The New York Times, “the most quoted man in Texas” by Texas Monthly, and (his personal favorite) “the state’s premiere barbecue connoisseur” by The Dallas Morning News.