Team
Ray Via II serves as Associate Director of Professional Services at AT&T Consulting, where he leads operations and high-performing teams supporting several strategic State of Texas accounts. With more than twenty-five years of experience, he has built a reputation for developing and guiding teams of top-tier professionals in IoT, cybersecurity, and network technologies for government agencies and financial institutions. Ray’s career is defined by his ability to cultivate talent, drive operational excellence, and deliver results under challenging circumstances.
Throughout his career, Ray has consistently led teams composed of some of the industry's brightest and most innovative minds. His leadership stresses collaboration, accountability, and practical innovation, enabling organizations to overcome technological and operational limitations while achieving mission-critical objectives. Early in his career, he helped build the Operations Center for the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command, an experience that shaped his long-standing interest in operational systems, command structures, and data-driven decision making.
As Engagement Manager for the Federal Aviation Administration’s ADS-B modernization program, Ray guided a multidisciplinary team through the complex transformation of national air traffic systems, implementing innovative solutions despite significant logistical and technical constraints. He later established a Cyber Security Services program for the State of Texas that strengthened numerous agencies; the Managed Security Services capability delivered through DIR continues today as a foundational component of statewide cybersecurity operations.
A strong advocate for analytics, automation, and standardized processes, Ray has designed operational strategies that strengthen team performance, improve hiring efficiency, and streamline enterprise workflows. He implemented recruiting systems that reduced hiring timelines from months to weeks and introduced standardized ticketing and event-management procedures across multiple operational centers, enabling teams to function as unified organizations capable of rapid response to evolving demands.
Beyond his corporate leadership, Ray applies the same systems-engineering mindset to historical research and digital publishing through MilitaryBrief.com, a data-driven military history platform he founded and continues to develop. The site centers on a structured relational database of military aircraft that integrates technical specifications, production data, operational histories, squadron assignments, and campaign usage into dynamically generated pages. Rather than presenting aircraft as isolated articles, the platform treats each system as part of a broader operational ecosystem, allowing users to compare variants, analyze performance tradeoffs, and explore how technology influenced strategy and outcomes.
A key feature of the platform is its comparative analysis framework, which enables side-by-side evaluation of aircraft across metrics such as range, payload, climb performance, survivability, production scale, and combat effectiveness. These comparison pages translate complex technical datasets into accessible visual analytics, reflecting Ray’s professional background in data architecture and operational intelligence. The project increasingly incorporates interactive visualizations, range maps, manufacturing networks, and unit-level operational context to bridge the gap between technical aviation data and historical narrative.
The MilitaryBrief database architecture is now expanding beyond aviation to include naval vessels and armored fighting vehicles. Upcoming modules apply the same analytical model to fleets and ground systems, enabling comparative study of destroyers, submarines, carriers, tanks, and armored formations across nations and eras. By standardizing technical and operational datasets across domains, the platform aims to create a unified analytical environment where users can examine how air, sea, and land technologies interact within broader military systems. This work reflects Ray’s broader interest in understanding warfare not simply as a sequence of battles, but as an interconnected network of technology, logistics, leadership, and industrial capacity.
Ray earned both his undergraduate degree in Network Technologies and his MBA, with an emphasis in Managing Information Technology Teams, from Capella University. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in military history with a focus on World War II, channeling his expertise in leadership, analytics, and organizational strategy into the study of historical decision-making, technological innovation, and command dynamics.
Ray’s professional career is closely tied to a family legacy of service and leadership. He served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a crew chief on C-5 aircraft at Dover Air Force Base. His son serves as a U.S. Marine, his father served during the Bay of Pigs crisis, and two uncles fought in World War II, including one who landed in Normandy with the 393rd Engineers. His grandfather, Rufus Via, served as a doughboy with the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I. His great-grandfather, Wiley Via, rode with Confederate forces around Richmond during the Civil War, while an earlier ancestor, David Via, served in militia actions during the Revolutionary War, including service connected to Concord. This multi-generational tradition of service continues to inform Ray’s leadership philosophy and professional values.
Ray resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife of 28 years. Together they have raised four grown children and are actively parenting four more middle- and high-school students. Outside of work and family, he enjoys flying, traveling, and reading, with particular interests in military history, strategy, and epic fantasy literature.