Ann Gray
Ann Gray’s career has spanned academia, consulting, and entrepreneurship. Her focus has been on guiding organizations, both for- and non-profit, through difficult transitions. With business and private equity partners, Ann acquired and managed three mid-market manufacturing firms, two of which were facing bankruptcy. For this work, the Worcester Business Journal awarded Ann its Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007. Prior to this, Ann worked with the Center for the Quality of Management (CQM), a non-profit consortium of businesses developing and sharing best practices, and was the recipient of the organization’s Outstanding Contributor Award. Early in her career, Ann joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where she wrote business cases and consulted with companies to improve their operating practices and strategies. She has been featured in several articles and books, including Strategies for Successful Career Change and Smart Women, Small Business.
Ann has served on several Compass pro bono teams, providing management consulting services to non-profit clients. She also worked with Virginia Science Olympiad (VASO), an all-volunteer organization running science and engineering competitions, where she recruited talented professionals from education, science, and business to join her in improving the experience of the hundreds (now, thousands) of engaged students and coaches. Ann holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in industrial engineering from the University of Michigan, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business Administration. She and her family live in D.C.
