Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:27 — 94.0MB)
Many people have never heard of Ryan Furby, yet they have likely experienced the impact of the work he does.
After an international career with some of the world’s largest corporations, including FedEx, Philip Morris International, and Biogen, Ryan returned to Louisiana and quietly built a consulting practice that helps organizations navigate complex business challenges through strategic communications, public affairs, and reputation management.
Today, as CEO of RAF Strategic Communications and Public Affairs, he advises companies while also giving generously of his time to Acadiana’s nonprofit and civic organizations.
In this episode of Discover Lafayette, Ryan demystifies a profession that often operates behind the scenes. He explains how organizations earn, and sometimes lose, the public’s trust, why communications belong at the executive table, and how thoughtful leadership can determine whether a company thrives during moments of opportunity or crisis.
As Ryan succinctly explains, “I’m in the trust business. I’m in the reputation business.“
Louisiana Roots, Global Experience
Ryan’s career has taken him around the world, but Louisiana has always remained home.
Born in Baton Rouge, raised in Mandeville, and educated at Loyola University New Orleans, Ryan grew up with deep family ties throughout South Louisiana. His mother’s family has roots in Lafayette stretching back generations, while his father’s family is from Alexandria.
After nearly twenty years of pursuing increasingly demanding international leadership roles, Ryan found himself burned out.
“I’d been chasing jobs and money and career all around the world for 20 years,” he recalls. “I was at a point where I was really burned out.”
Initially, moving to Lafayette was intended to be temporary, a place where he and his wife could regroup while raising their two young children closer to family.
“We’ll spend a year. See how it goes.” Eight years later, Lafayette has become home. That decision changed not only his family’s life, but the community that would eventually benefit from his leadership.
Learning Leadership at FedEx
Ryan credits much of his professional development to his years at FedEx, where he describes the company as “my training ground” and “my MBA.”
Working inside one of the world’s largest transportation companies gave him unprecedented exposure to executive decision-making and corporate strategy.
Few people influenced him more than FedEx founder Fred Smith. “I thought of him as a professor,” Ryan says. “Every time he spoke, I just absorbed all of that.”
Smith’s military background shaped the culture of the company through a simple but powerful philosophy: “Shoot. Move. Communicate.”
Ryan explains that the phrase represented more than a slogan. It embodied how organizations must continually adapt, execute, and communicate internally to remain successful.
At FedEx, communications wasn’t an afterthought, it was part of executive leadership. Communications professionals sat alongside legal counsel, operations leaders, marketing executives, and division presidents, helping shape decisions before they became headlines.
As Ryan explains, their role was often to become “the conscience of the organization,” helping leaders ask difficult questions: “If you mess up, how do you own it? How do you fix it? How do you prevent it from happening again?”
Katrina: Helping New Orleans Recover
One of Ryan’s defining professional experiences came in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
From FedEx’s corporate “war room,” he watched the devastation unfold while simultaneously helping coordinate logistics and charitable efforts to support New Orleans’ recovery.
The experience was deeply personal. “I felt like New Orleans was my home,” he says. “Watching that and then knowing what my friends and family were experiencing felt very personal.”
Among the recovery efforts he remains most proud of was helping the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas reopen.
After Katrina, nearly every animal inside the aquarium died when life-support systems failed. The surviving penguins and two sea otters had been relocated to California while the facility rebuilt.
When the aquarium asked FedEx for help bringing the animals home, Ryan immediately recognized the symbolic importance.
“This is going to be big. This is a story.”
FedEx ultimately chartered one of its own aircraft to transport the animals back to New Orleans, sponsored the exhibit, and helped organize a major reopening celebration nearly one year after the storm.
“It was symbolic of what New Orleans needed,” Ryan reflects.
The story became a powerful reminder that communications is about far more than publicity; it is about helping communities recover, celebrate milestones, and restore hope.
Reinvention on a Global Stage
Ryan’s next chapter took him to Switzerland with Philip Morris International. To many, accepting a position with a tobacco company might seem surprising.
Ryan explains that by the time he joined, the company’s leadership was investing heavily in research and development to transition smokers toward reduced-risk alternatives. His responsibility was helping one of the world’s most heavily regulated companies navigate communications in an increasingly digital world.
Unlike traditional consumer brands, every communication had to operate within extraordinary legal constraints. “It was always trying to find a path through all of the barriers,” he says.
Living overseas also transformed his family’s perspective. Ryan and his wife immersed their children in French-speaking schools, traveled extensively throughout Europe, and developed friendships with colleagues from across the globe, including Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and Eastern Europe.
Those experiences fundamentally changed how he views the world. “I tend to see things from both sides,” he says. “I give the other side the benefit of the doubt.”
That balanced perspective continues to shape both his consulting practice and his civic leadership today.
Choosing Lafayette
When Ryan eventually returned to the United States through Biogen, he briefly considered relocating to Boston.
Instead, he chose Lafayette. His reason was remarkably simple. Family. “I wanted them to know their family,” he says of his children.
Equally important was his desire to become part of a genuine community. Living abroad had shown him what it meant to be welcomed professionally but never fully belong.
Louisiana offered something different. “I wanted to be part of the people, part of the community.”
Rather than simply living in Lafayette, Ryan intentionally sought opportunities to serve. That commitment eventually led him to board leadership with organizations including the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra and Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Louisiana, as well as service on the committee that selected the new president of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Building RAF Strategic Communications
Ryan eventually founded RAF Strategic Communications and Public Affairs, naming the company after his initials, “RAF,” colleagues had called him throughout his FedEx career.
Today, he helps organizations clarify strategy, improve communications, strengthen relationships with government and stakeholders, and successfully compete for major contracts.
One example close to home involved Acadiana Waste Services. When the company prepared its proposal for Lafayette’s residential solid waste contract, Ryan brought decades of experience responding to complex Requests for Proposals.
His advice was practical: “Answer the question. Get the score you need.” But beyond simply answering technical requirements, Ryan helped the locally owned company present itself with the polish and professionalism expected of much larger national competitors. “If you want to know how the big ones operate,” he says, “this is how they do it.”
Today, he continues serving as a communications consultant for Acadiana Waste Services while helping the company build relationships throughout the community. And Ryan says, ” Just a side note, we have a monthly meeting with LCG and each month, it’s another month of no fines. To have no fines means you’ve collected every single route. If you miss something, you have 24 hours to fix it. No fines in this industry is unheard of. They are a great company and great people. I’m really fortunate to work with them.”
Reputation Can Take Decades to Build—and Minutes to Lose
One of the most fascinating portions of our conversation centered on reputation management.
Ryan discussed recent corporate case studies ranging from Fender Guitars to BP’s Deepwater Horizon response, illustrating how quickly public trust can disappear.
Quoting Warren Buffett, Ryan offered one of the interview’s most memorable observations: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
His work often involves helping organizations ask difficult questions before problems become public crises. “The best examples of what I do,” he explains, “never hit the papers because the issues have been handled properly before they were out there to ruin the reputation of the company.”
It is a reminder that successful communications isn’t simply about responding well, it is about making wiser decisions from the beginning.
Giving Back to Acadiana
Despite an international résumé, Ryan speaks most enthusiastically about community service.
His involvement with the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra reflects his belief that arts organizations help define the character of a community. He praises board chairman Robert Schacht for modernizing the organization while expanding educational programming, movie concerts, chamber performances, and outreach designed to welcome new audiences.
“We’re trying to bring in education and students and have fun,” Ryan says. “I just think performing arts is so important for community.”
That same philosophy guides his volunteer work across Acadiana. As he explains: “Work is just a piece of who I am.” “What I can give back is much more rewarding.”
Listen to the Full Conversation
Ryan Furby’s career has taken him from Louisiana to Switzerland, from global boardrooms to local nonprofit organizations, yet one lesson consistently emerges throughout our conversation:
Businesses succeed not simply because they have great products, but because they earn trust.
Whether advising Fortune 500 companies, helping a locally owned business compete for a transformational contract, or volunteering with organizations that enrich Acadiana, Ryan brings the same thoughtful approach to leadership: listening carefully, understanding multiple perspectives, and helping people achieve their best outcomes.
His story is ultimately not just about communications.
It’s about character, credibility, and the relationships that make communities and organizations stronger.
For more information about his services, visit https://rafmarketing.com/.
