Ray Mabus

Raymond Edwin Mabus, Jr. served as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2017. In this role, he opened all jobs to women, aggressively moved to alternative energy as a warfighting measure, built more than twice as many ships during his term than in the preceding eight years and developed the Gulf Coast Restoration Plan after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. During Mabus’ tenure as Governor of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992, Mississippi experienced record growth in jobs, education, tourism and exports. From 1994 to 1996, Mabus was the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and was CEO of a Foamex from 2006 to 2007. Today, Mabus is a chairman of InStride and a director of two public companies. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Explorers Club. Mabus received a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Mississippi, a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a law degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.