Ric Elias

Business leader, Entrepreneur, Parent

Ric Elias is the CEO of Red Ventures, a portfolio of growing digital companies headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Red Ventures brings consumers and brands together - directly and through online marketplaces. A native of Puerto Rico, Ric attended Boston College and Harvard Business School before starting his career as part of GE’s Financial Management program. Ric co-founded Red Ventures in 2000, just months before the dot-com bubble burst. The company weathered the storm; by 2007 it was ranked 4th on the Inc. 500 list, and in 2015 the company was valuated at more than $1 billion. Red Ventures has become a portfolio of growing digital businesses that span multiple industries and help consumers seamlessly connect with the brands or services they need. Ric has cultivated a technology-centric and award-winning company culture, ranking as one of Charlotte’s ‘Best Places to Work’ for ten years in a row. In 2009, Elias was a survivor of Flight 1549, also known as the“Miracle on the Hudson,” an event which changed his life and led to his widely viewed TED Talk “3 Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed.” His leadership style earned him noteworthy recognition; in 2011, he was named an Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Carolinas Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. In 2019, he launched a podcast, "3 Things with Ric Elias," where he shares conversations and insights with top business leaders, athletes, and other noteworthy guests. In addition to basketball, his family and Red Ventures, Ric is passionate about creating educational opportunity and economic mobility for under-served groups who have the motivation and work ethic to succeed. Ric has founded several nonprofit organizations including Road to Hire, an on-the-job sales and tech training platform, Golden Door Scholars (GDS), which creates educational and career opportunities for high-performing undocumented students, LifeSports, an after-school athletics and life training program for at-risk youth, and Rebuild Puerto Rico, a nonprofit for which Ric raised $2.3M towards long-term rebuilding efforts on the island following Hurricane Maria. Additionally, in 2018, Ric launched Forward787, a social enterprise committed to raising and deploying$100M to build businesses in Puerto Rico that compete with the world’s top companies.

Business, Social Impact