Meet the Speaker: Jimmy Rayford ’12 MBA

With over a decade of executive experience, Jimmy Rayford ’12 has distinguished himself as a culture architect, commercial value creator and manufacturing expert. Since 2020, Jimmy has served as CEO of Dealers Wholesale, a leading Indianapolis-based provider of doors, fireplaces, and other building product solutions. 

After spending his career with several different companies, Jimmy has found his home with Dealers Wholesale. He believes in the possibility of a people-first, high-performance culture. That is why he decided to join Dealers Wholesale – to help lead the amazing team at Dealers to amazing results for each other and their customers. During his time with Dealers, Jimmy has spearheaded the best financial performance in the sixty-year history of the company, completed a strategic acquisition, significantly improved team engagement and customer experience. 

Prior to joining Dealers Wholesale, he was Chief Commercial Officer and SVP of Strategy and Business Development for Strategic Materials, North America’s largest glass recycler. Earlier in his career, Jimmy had leadership roles with Belden, Danaher, Sanmina-SCI, and IBM. 

Jimmy serves on five Boards, including More than A Phone, The Center for the Performing Arts of Carmel, Young Presidents Organization (YPO) Indiana, Black Alumni of Notre Dame and KIPP Indy. He holds a BS in industrial engineering from Clemson University and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Jimmy and his wife Bailey have been married for 22 years and they have two children:  daughter Reese who is 15 years old and son Logan who is 8 years old. Their family core values are family over everything, experiences over things, dream big, health is wealth and building upon their ancestors’ legacy.