Ray Bloom

Ray Bloom is the chairman and founder of the IMEX Group, based in Brighton. IMEX Group organises worldwide exhibitions for the incentive travel, meetings and events industry in Europe and the US: IMEX in Frankfurt every spring, and IMEX America in Las Vegas every autumn.

A perennially successful entrepreneur, Ray went from the automotive to the hotel industries and then into the exhibition industry, where he built up EIBTM (European and Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition), which he sold to Reed Exhibitions in 1997. His views on the meetings, events and incentive travel industry are widely sought after and he is a regular speaker at industry events around the globe. He has won dozens of industry awards and accolades.

Ray is Brighton born and bred and is enormously proud of his and his family's links to the city. As a director of Brighton and Hove Albion for over 30 years, joining the board in the summer of 1984, Ray has a lifetime of Albion memories to treasure, but if pressed nominates the 1991 (former) second division semi-final play-off against Millwall at the Old Den which saw the Albion win 2-1 (6-2 on aggregate) to go to Wembley for the play-off final.