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 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). Ray served on the Board of Trustees for the MPI Foundation from 1996 to 2002, MPI’s Global Strategy Taskforce Committee from 2006 to 2008 and also MPI’s European Council. He was also on the Board of Trustees for the SITE Foundation from 1993 to 1999.

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.

Born in Brighton, Ray’s enormously proud of his family’s links to the city including its football club Brighton & Hove Albion, where he is Honorary Life President—a role he stepped into after spending over 40 years as a director on the club's main board.