A Deeper Bench

For the hundreds of SDB readers already familiar with Ray Barry, the announcement that he took a position in NAID (National Association for Information Destruction) management was received as very welcome news. For those who have not had the pleasure of meeting Ray and for the record, I want to explain why the NAID board jumped at the chance to add him to the team.

Of course, Ray is most familiar to NAID members through his involvement in Shred School^®, which he ran for almost a decade. As the dean of Shreducation^®, literally hundreds of new and veteran industry professionals turned to Ray to learn the sales techniques he developed and utilized as the sales manager for Shred First. In case you don’t know, Shred First was a remarkable national secure destruction success story in an incredibly short time.

Ray was also a prominent contributor to SDB magazine, with his Sales Minute column appearing in its pages for years.

Over the last year or so, the NAID board of directors had discussed adding to the NAID management team. While the association had already added many key staff members over the years to deal with its growth, it was obvious to all, especially to me, that help was needed at the top. The problem was, however, that it could not just be anyone, and knowledgeable industry candidates were few and far between.

As fate would have it, the stars aligned when hiring Ray became a possibility. In what he says was one of the “toughest decisions of his life,” Ray decided to leave Access, a company he’d come to highly respect, because the post at NAID would allow him to do what he liked best, “helping other entrepreneurs achieve their goals,” he says.

This is great news for NAID members, which is what matters. Ray’s grasp of industry issues, his reputation as a strong advocate for NAID members, his work ethic and his overwhelmingly positive attitude will have a tremendous impact on the association’s ability to provide value and relevance.

With that in mind, we urge all NAID members to welcome Ray to the NAID team. He’s working for you now, and that’s a very good thing!

Bob Johnson is CEO of the National Association for Information Destruction. He can be reached at rjohnson@naidonline.org.