Ryan Blair (born July 14, 1977) is an American entrepreneur and author. He is the former co-founder and chief executive officer of the

multi-level marketing Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling th ...

company ViSalus Sciences, a subsidiary of the publicly traded company Blyth, Inc. In 2011, he wrote a book titled ''Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur'' which reached ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list for hardcover business books.

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

named Blair as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012.

Early life

Blair was raised in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

. A product of a broken family, at the early age of 13, "he was already heavily 'involved in stuff' after his father succumbed to drug addiction," Blair tells Business Insider in an interview. He dropped out of high school in the 9th grade, left home, and became a gang member in his home-town of Los Angeles. When he was 18, Blair's mother began dating a successful real-estate entrepreneur who became Blair's mentor and gave him his first job at Logix Development, a computer technical support provider. At age 21, after serving as vice president of Logix Development he founded the technical-support firm 24/7 Tech.

Business and writing

In 2005, Blair became the CEO of the

company ViSalus Sciences. In 2008, ViSalus was in debt and facing bankruptcy. That year the company was acquired by Blyth Inc., with Blair remaining as CEO. In 2010, Blair won the DSN Global Turn Around Award "when he actually turned the company around from a $6 million debt in early 2008 to $150 million in revenue 16 months later." In 2011, Blair released an autobiography, ''Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur''. The book was ranked 3rd in ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list for August 2011 and was a number one New York Times Hardcover Business Book bestseller in September of that year. In 2012 and 2013, Blair contributed several articles to Forbes Magazine's website. As of 2012, ViSalus was valued at $600 million. Revenue subsequently declined and the company operated at a loss for 2013 and the first two-quarters of 2014. In 2012, Blair sold ViSalus for $792 million. In 2016, Blair released his second book, titled Rock Bottom To Rock Star''.' The book focuses on teaching individuals how they can become rock-star entrepreneurs, by redefining what rock-star means. "It isn't the celebrations that make you a rock star, it is the hard work" says Blair.

Philanthropy

The Blair Foundation, a nonprofit Ryan Blair founded, donates to programs that support at-risk kids and families. Through the Blair Foundation, he works closely with Urban Born, a non-profit company that helps at-risk youth and teens put an end to drug use and avoid gangs, while promoting education and healthy living.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Ryan 1977 births 21st-century American businesspeople Living people People associated with direct selling Former gang members