Meet Our New Sales Manager: Ray Chase

Introducing Sales Manager Ray Chase

If there’s a place in this world, Ray Chase has probably been there, and we’re glad the long road he’s traveled has led him to BMW of North Haven. Ray was born in Seoul, South Korea to a U.S. military family and was constantly on the move. In early youth he spent time in various locations around South Carolina and Georgia, “College Park in Atlanta. I met Dominique Wilkins, all these NBA guys lived around there,” before shuttling cross-country to Tacoma, Washington, and finding his love for playing football in the city’s Tacoma Dome.

“We moved every three or four years,” he tells us. “Right when I was going to be a senior, football player, all that, my dad comes home and told us we were moving to Munich.”

Ray kept playing football overseas for the base’s American school in BMW country, and his fascinating memories of the time include crossing the Berlin Wall to play another American school team in East Berlin, and taking a class trip to the BMW factory in Munich. It’s been a full circle for Ray, and a big one! “I can order food in seven languages,” he laughs.

Was all that moving enough? Not hardly. Ray enlisted and served a 25-year career in the U.S. Army, all before being a driving force as sales manager in the automotive industry in Manhattan, Kansas (yes, folks: The Little Apple).

He explains how all these roads led to Connecticut:

“My general manager enrolled us in an NCM management course, which is where I met (Mercedes-Benz of North Haven General Sales Manager) KellyLynn Anderson who told me about Mauro Motors. The only opening was at BMW so I visited, and I immediately felt welcome. Within five minutes I knew I wanted to work here.”

Ray had just one last deal to close: convincing his wife of ten years to move cross country with him. It helped, he says, that one of his high school friends just happened to live in the Constitution State, and told him she loved it.

In another full circle moment: “she told me the land reminded her of Germany.”

“You don’t have to build value with BMW, it’s already there,” Ray says of his new job with the familiar brand. “I want to build relationships with everyone I meet here. I want them to feel appreciated.”

Sometimes it’s a long road arriving at your destination. Come in, meet Ray, and let him show you how to get there in the Ultimate Driving Machine.