skip to main content
Department of Economics
University of Mississippi

Alex Ray

Alex Ray

Associate, McKinsey & Company

Madison, MS
BBA in Economics, Minor in Manufacturing Engineering (2015)
LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please describe your educational/career path since graduation from UM.
While I was at Ole Miss, I started a tech startup called Zyn Careers to help millennials find jobs that they would love. Our team developed tools for both job seekers looking for jobs and HR teams looking to improve their organization’s culture. While at Zyn Careers, I became involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem both in Oxford and throughout Mississippi.

After working on the startup for about two years, I joined Oxbow Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in Jackson, MS, where I evaluated early stage startups, explored new technical concepts, and advised companies on how to improve their technology. I left Oxbow Ventures in 2018 to attend Harvard Business School for an MBA.

After getting my MBA, I created a startup called Parade that helped entrepreneurs launch businesses without hiring a design agency. From 2020-2022, Parade helped 7,000 companies establish their visual identities and launch their businesses.

I am now an Associate at McKinsey & Company in the Seattle, WA office, where I help businesses and their executives navigate strategic questions. With my background, I am especially effective at helping businesses identify how they might use artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve their operations.

 

What is the value of studying economics in today’s world?
Studying economics equips you to understand both why individuals make decisions and how those decisions impact society at large. With microeconomics and behavioral economics, you can develop a framework for why people make decisions, whether it’s buying something, saving money, getting vaccinated, or going to an event when they’d prefer to skip. With macroeconomics and other public finance lessons, you can develop a framework to explain why governments and corporations make decisions and how they react to others. Understanding economics helps you understand the world.