Full Name
Joe Ruiz
Job Title
Vice President - Strategic Partnerships
Company
Red Lightning
Speaker Bio
After a 35-year career as a private sector executive, Joe recently joined Red Lightning, a volunteer-led humanitarian organization, which has partnered with UPS for over a decade to deliver health and humanitarian relief solutions to underserved and impacted communities.

Joe previously led The UPS Foundation’s Health and Humanitarian Relief Program overseeing the UPS Foundation’s funding, in-kind and skilled volunteer initiatives. He facilitated the UPS Experts on Mission program, to share UPS’s global supply chain expertise with int’l NGO, UN agencies and the Global Logistics Cluster, and provided private sector capacity to meet supply chain gaps in global crises, including 100 million vaccines to under-resourced countries during the Global Pandemic.

Under Joe’s leadership, The UPS Foundation created innovative public-private partnerships to enhance health system strengthening in underserved countries. These award-winning initiatives include The Gavi STEP program for supply chain professionals, innovative medical drone partnerships with Gavi and Zipline, and the UPS Vaccine Equity Initiative that deployed skilled volunteers, cold-chain tools and training to help deliver 100’s of millions of COVID and essential childhood vaccines to underserved and remote communities in low-and-middle income countries.

Red Lightning was recently recognized by the Maui County Council following the Lahaina wild fires for restoring communications to thousands of West Maui residents, establishing connectivity in areas of immediate need, including pharmacies, fire stations, airports, supermarkets supporting emergency responders, and emergency material distribution hubs.

Joe also continues to serve on The Salvation Army National Advisory Board and as a director for St. Bernard Project (SBP).
Joe Ruiz