LIU013: The Engineer Who Built a Business to Fund a Mission

Ray's career in IT began at age 12, helping his father run a bulletin board service before the internet was mainstream. His early exposure to computers led him to tech school and an MCSE certification, which he describes as a career golden ticket in the early 2000s. A pivotal high school computer teacher who challenged students to beat him at Solitaire became a formative mentor after Ray hacked the Windows Solitaire program to cheat — an early demonstration of the problem-solving instincts that would define his career.

His professional life began in earnest during college, working overnight security at a senior living property in Philadelphia. After catching the attention of the regional IT director, Ray was brought into IT work across multiple properties. His breakthrough moment came when he identified and circumvented a Y2K-related software bug designed to force paid upgrades — a fix the company deployed across all their properties and which led to a full-time job offer in New York City at age 21.

Ray spent years building infrastructure at scale for a large senior living company spanning 30 properties across the Northeast. After that company was acquired, he transitioned into consulting, initially as a side hustle sparked by a chance encounter on a train with a marketing consultant who became his first client. He cycled in and out of full-time corporate roles, always returning to consulting driven by his love of variety and problem-solving. He named his company Libertas — Latin for liberty — partly inspired by the emotional aftermath of witnessing the September 11 attacks in New York City.

His MSP, Libertas Consulting, now operates with one full-time employee and a network of trusted subcontractors. Ray describes his core consulting value as identifying overspend — in one case finding over a million dollars in wasted expenditure within the first six months of acting as a company's CIO. He also candidly admits to the 'we' tactic — always speaking as though representing a larger team — as a deliberate strategy to project scale.

In parallel, Ray co-founded TKW (Technology Knowledge Worldwide), a nonprofit now in its fifth year that has donated nearly or over a million dollars in technology infrastructure to underserved communities. The organization runs an annual volunteer event called TextGiving, which falls between Canadian and American Thanksgiving, where IT professionals donate their skills and time to outfit nonprofits and community organizations with full network, wireless, access control, AV, and security camera systems. Past projects include a community church-preschool in suburban Philadelphia, a youth fitness gym in urban Baltimore, a preschool in North Carolina, and four properties of a domestic violence and anti-sex trafficking organization in Rhode Island — all completed in a single weekend.

The 2025 TextGiving project targets the Philadelphia chapter of Ronald McDonald House, described as the busiest hotel in Philadelphia, with an estimated $300,000 in hardware needs including access control for nearly 200 doors, new wireless infrastructure, networking, and security cameras. Ray is actively seeking vendor sponsors, equipment donations, and volunteer labor. Donations can be made at donate.texgiving.org and volunteers or sponsors can sign up at texgiving.org.

Throughout the conversation, Ray reflects on the mindset shifts required to go out on your own, emphasizing that early in his career he prioritized salary over life value, a choice he now regrets. He argues that the money follows passion and skill, and that the most important resource is time. He also credits TKW with building a trusted professional network — people he now passes work to and receives work from — demonstrating that the nonprofit functions as both a charitable mission and a high-trust professional community.