Founder of Interface, Ray Anderson
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Ray Anderson
Entrepreneur
BIO
Ray Anderson is the founder of Interface, the world's leading company for design, production and sales of modular carpets. Interface is also a leading producer of broadloom carpet and commercial fabrics. While Interface is noted for its commitment to high quality design and innovation, the company is also recognized as a leader in the green business movement.
Inspired chiefly by Paul Hawken's treatise, "The Ecology of Commerce," Mr. Anderson continues to pioneer efforts towards making Interface an environmentally sustainable company driven by the goal of never having to take another drop of oil from the earth.
Today, Ray Anderson is recognized as one of the world's most environmentally progressive leaders on sustainable commerce, having served as Co-Chairman of the "President's Council on Sustainable Development," during the Clinton administration; being recognized by Mikhail Gorbachev with a "Millennium Award," from Global Green in September 1996; receiving in 1996 the Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of Year for the Southeast Region," and in 1997 as the Georgia Conservancy's "Conservationist of the Year."
Mr. Anderson's honors also include the prestigious "George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development," presented in 2001; the "SAM-SPG Sustainability Leadership Award," of 2001; the U.S. Green Building Council's, "Inaugural Leadership Award," 2002; and the National Wildlife Federation "Conservation Achievement Award," for Corporate Leadership, 2002.
Mr. Anderson was named a Senior Fellow and Leading Voice for Green and Sustainable Design by the Design Futures Council in 2003, and also received the "IIDA Star Award." In 2004, he was honored with the "National Ethics Advocate Award" from The Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. In 2005 he received the Harvard Business School Atlanta Alumni Club's "Community Leadership Award," as well as a "Corporate Ally Award" from Possible Woman Enterprises.
He serves on the boards of The Natural Step, USA; The Georgia Conservancy; Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper; Ida Cason Callaway Foundation; Rocky Mountain Institute; the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development, and is an honorary advisor to the President of Peking University. He holds honorary doctorates from Northland College (public service), LaGrange College (business), N.C. State University (humane letters) and University of Southern Maine (humane letters).
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