Sir Ray Avery GNZM

Award-Winning Scientist, Author, Inventor, Social Entrepreneur and Raconteur

Successful pharmaceutical scientist, inventor, philanthropist, businessman and founder and CEO of Medicine Mondiale, Sir Ray Avery was voted Readers Digest New Zealand's Most Trusted Person in 2011.

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Successful Scientist, author, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Sir Ray Avery is an internationally recognised, charismatic and entertaining public speaker who challenges everyone to “Dream Big”.

A former street kid Ray went on to become an internationally recognised scientist and entrepreneur.

A founding member of the Auckland University Department of Clinical Pharmacology and former Technical Director of Douglas Pharmaceuticals Sir Ray made a major contribution to the development of New Zealand’s Pharmaceutical industry.

Working throughout Africa and Asia and exposed to the raw and real shortcomings in healthcare, Ray was determined to use his knowledge to tackle big health issues endemic throughout the developing world.

As Technical Director of the Fred Hollows Foundation, Sir Ray made high-quality low-cost Cataract lenses available to the poorest of the poor, restoring the sight of millions of people around the globe.

Sir Ray has lived in New Zealand for 50 years but much of this time he has spent delivering healthcare solutions throughout Africa and Asia.

In 2011 Sir Ray was made a Grand Knight companion which is the highest Knighthood in NZ for his services to philanthropy and the same year he was voted the most trusted person in NZ by a reader’s digest pole.

In October 2022 Sir Ray moved his family to Sydney Australia so he could be closer to his wife’s Greek Australian family and Sir Ray said “he’s loving it mate”.

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How to create a successful business

Sir Ray is a polymath equally at home on the stage teaching corporates about the key ingredients and strategies for a company to become successful and build unassailable teams to beat the competition or presenting side-splitting laughter filled after dinner speeches that make people think about the idiosyncrasies of us humans.

In the style of comedian Michael McIntyre Ray draws on his extraordinary world travel experiences to tell stories from war-torn countries to provincial towns in NZ and Australia what makes Australian and New Zealand cultures unique.

Ray leaves audiences in tears of laughter.

Sir Ray was a great way to end our conference. His life story is extremely inspirational and he appealed to our very diverse range of attendees – our support staff, farm staff, developers, researchers, scientists – there was something for everyone!! We were also pleased that Ray was able to weave real life experiences into relevance for our attendees – making science practical; the power of observation; customer service (provided to our farmers); partnerships – all tying in with our overall theme of “Foundations for the Future”. DairyNZ
We have had some great feedback, but of course it wouldn't have been so successful without your participation. Our members always get so much from this time they get to share information with their peers and your contribution is hugely appreciated. Some of the comments we had in regard to you were "amazing man", "amazing speaker", "awesome", "what a delightful speaker, WOW!" Speaks for itself really! What more can we say except to thank you once again for entertaining and enthralling our (sometimes hard to please) audience! Professionals Real Estate Group
Sir Ray Avery is a personable and charming character who provided humorous and interesting tales about his life that were relevant to the audience. Very inspirational and obviously passionate about what he believes. New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores
He was entertaining, inspiring and hilariously funny. He engaged the audience, and was a wonderful story-teller. The feedback from our staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Sanitarium
Ray was interesting, entertaining and inspiring. He captured the attention of all of our attendees who were a variety of different ages and came from a variety of walks of life. New Zealand Home Loans
Sir Ray’s presentation had wide appeal for the mixed audience from teenage to elderly. Inspirational stories for all Royston Hospital