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Ray Starling

Ray Starling
NC Chamber of Commerce

Ray Starling is General Counsel of the NC Chamber of Commerce and President of the NC Chamber Legal Institute. Prior to joining the NC Chamber, Ray served as chief of staff to US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. He previously served as the principal agriculture advisor to the President of the United States at the White House, served as chief of staff and chief counsel for U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, after serving as general counsel when Tillis was Speaker of the House in the North Carolina legislature, and worked as general counsel for the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, interfacing daily with Commissioner Steve Troxler. Ray clerked on the NC Supreme Court after law school, and was a member of the litigation and antitrust team of an international law firm for several years before joining the Department.

Ray has taught at three different law schools, most recently by authoring and teaching a course on “Public Lawyering” while a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Regent.  In 2022, he will again teach the Agriculture and Food Law Course at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Ray also speaks regularly around the country, through an entity he dubbed “Short Rows Leadership.”

He has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from North Carolina State University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He grew up on a Century Family Farm in southeastern North Carolina, was a National FFA Officer and is a former 4-H member