Ray Bloom is the chairman and founder of the IMEX Group, which organizes worldwide exhibitions for the incentive travel, meetings and events industry in Europe and the US. IMEX Frankfurt takes place at Messe Frankfurt, Germany, every spring; while IMEX America takes place at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas each fall.

Ray Bloom has been a successful entrepreneur for many years. He started his career in the motor industry where his family’s Volkswagen Audi dealership won the Diamond Pin Award (the highest Volkswagen Award given to dealerships worldwide).

He subsequently entered the hotel industry and then the exhibition industry where he built up EIBTM, which was sold to Reed Exhibitions in 1997. He also built up the leading sales and promotion exhibition, Incentive World (London), which was sold to Reed Exhibitions in 2000.

Recognitions include the CIC Hall of Leaders (1991), UK Personality of the Year by Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine (1993), recipient of the ICCA Presidents Award (1997) and the WATA Hall of Fame (2000). He served on the Board of Trustees for the MPI Foundation from 1996 to 2002 and MPI’s Global Strategy Taskforce Committee from 2006 to 2008. He also served on the Board of Trustees for the SITE Foundation from 1993 to 1999 and until recently was treasurer for the SITE Foundation. He currently serves on the MPI European Council.

His views and opinions on the meetings and incentive travel industry are widely sought after and he is a regular speaker at industry events around the world. Ray was born in Brighton and Hove, and is enormously proud of his and his family’s links to our home city.