Jeunesse Global - Lifetime Achievement Award

Company: Jeunesse Global, Orlando, FL
Company Description: Jeunesse is a billion-dollar global direct selling company with a mission to positively impact the world by helping people look and feel young, while empowering each other to unleash their potential. The company’s exclusive skin care and nutritional products make up a comprehensive Youth Enhancement System (Y.E.S.). Jeunesse operates in 146 markets worldwide.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Lifetime Achievement Award - Consumer Products Industries

Nomination Title: Jeunesse® Founder & CEO Randy Ray: Mud Pies to Blue Skies

If there’s one thing Randy Ray knows, it’s this: You are not limited by your current circumstances.Randy grewup literally dirt poor — at times he didn’t own shoes and ate mud pies to stave off hunger pains. Despite this impoverished youth, somehow Randy held a strong belief that he was destined for success. This belief helped him break free from poverty to attend college and later design a computer system used to launch NASA space shuttles.

Throughout his life, that unabashed optimism has been one of the keys to Randy’s enormous success. Using his background in computer programming, Randy founded several successful businesses, including cofounding companies with his wife, Wendy Lewis. Their first venture together became a No. 1 medical software company which they sold, spinning off the hardware company and taking it to No. 184 on the Inc. 500.

After an unsuccessful attempt at retirement, on Sept. 9, 2009, Randy and Wendy founded Jeunesse Global. Having already achieved significant business success, the inspiration for Jeunesse was to help others realize their dreams and, through the nonprofit foundation Jeunesse Kids™, to make a positive impact for children who face what Ray had as a kid — little more than hope.

As the Founder and CEO of Jeunesse, Randy has commanded the helm of the company since its inception. In addition to providing corporate strategy direction for Jeunesse, he also champions the mission and vision of Jeunesse Kids.

In 2020, Jeunesse celebrated its 11thanniversary. In addition to establishing itself among the top 20 percent of the direct selling industry and making history as the youngest company to achieve billion-dollar annual sales, Jeunesse has achieved many notable accomplishments since its inception:

-Achieving $8 billion in cumulative sales
-Establishing a presence in every major world market with 32 offices, 47 warehouses and product distribution in 146 countries.
-Ranking five consecutive years on the Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America (2014 to 2018).
-Garnering more than 800 corporate awards, including 32 awards for Company of the Year and 97 for its founding team
-Establishing its nonprofit foundation Jeunesse Kids™, which has raised $12.8 million since 2012. http://www.jeunessekids.org/

It’s abundantly clear — 2020 was a year no one imagined. COVID-19 upended the way the world does business, and Jeunesse was no exception. The virus caused major disruption in world markets and challenged the ability of the company’s relationship-marketing business model to connect people in a world locked down and socially distanced.

Despite this, Jeunesse achieved cumulative sales of $8 billion and achieved growth in almost all world markets.

On a more personal note, 2020 marked the debut of Randy’s award-winning memoir which chronicles the incredible life’s journey that took him from a poor sharecropper’s son working the dusty fields of Tennessee to becoming a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. In honor of Randy’s humble beginnings and desire to give back, all proceeds from the sale ofMud Pies to Blue Skiesbenefit Jeunesse Kids.

Amid the success, Randy has never let Jeunesse lose sight of its primary ambition: To help others. Through Jeunesse Kids, Randy is doing just that. Jeunesse Kids makes a meaningful difference in the lives of children in need around the world through sustainable projects that create long-term impact.In 2020, Jeunesse Kids donated $2.4 million to 13 charities, funding 14 projects on 6 continents.

One especially notable project was a $1 million grant given to fund the building of theWE College School of Entrepreneurship in Kenya which will offer a fully accredited degree in Entrepreneurship to students on a scholarship basis. The inaugural class of female students will begin in 2022.

In Jeunesse, Ray has found the perfect vehicle to bring the bright future he envisioned as a boy to thousands across the globe.

-Overcame great odds to become a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist.
-Beat out multi-billion dollar aerospace giants to win a contract to develop the launch processing software for the NASA Space Shuttle program.
-Founded several companies, including a hardware company which was which raked No. 184 on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing companies in America.
-Currently acts as Founder and CEO of Jeunesse Global, a top-tier direct selling company.
-Led Jeunesse to become the youngest company in direct selling history to reach annual sales of $1 billion.
-Has helped Jeunesse maintain annual billion-dollar sales for the past five years and $8 billion cumulative sales since 2009
-Founded Jeunesse Kids, a successful nonprofit that has raised more than $12.8 million since 2012.
-Recognized with 30 awards in several prestigious business programs including: EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, Founding Team of the Year, and Management Team of the Year.