People:Faculty

Dan Keith Ray

In 1986, Dan Keith Ray licensed the Resource Development System©, to KPMG Peat Marwick, the world’s largest accounting and management consulting firm, and joined the firm as Senior Manager . RDS was used by the firm to assist diverse organizations including Catholic Charities, Johns Hopkins University, The American Red Cross and the American Humane Society.

Later, Dan served as President and CEO of the American Craft Council (ACC), the largest national organization dedicated to fostering and promoting crafts, craftspeople, and craft organizations. This experience and a long-time interest in craft led him to initiate the formation of HandMade in America, a 23-county effort to build the Western North Carolina region’s craft tradition into a vital part of its economic future. His facilitation of planning efforts for HandMade led him to adapt RDS to community-based planning and to develop the second of the Institute’s three planning systems: the Community Development System (CDS). His planning work for HandMade was awarded the American Planning Association’s Economic Development Plan of the Year for 1994.

Today, Dan Keith Ray is a sought-after planning facilitator and strategist as Founder and Senior Fellow of the Institute at Biltmore. Since returning to his native Western North Carolina, Ray has made his expertise and planning systems available to grassroots, community-based organizations.

Contact Information

The Institute at Biltmore
One West Pack Square
Suite 1505
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 277-1202
dray@strategicplan.org