Ray Welling, PhD, was born and raised in the American Midwest but has lived most of his life in Australia. He holds a BSJ from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in Chicago, an MA in mass communication from Macquarie University and a PhD in marketing and management from the University of Sydney. Following a professional career as a journalist, publisher, content marketer and creator, strategy consultant, digital marketing manager and writer, Ray turned to academia, and has taught digital marketing, consumer behaviour, public relations, social media, branding, creative advertising, media/marketing convergence, strategic communications, global marketing and decision-making to undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA students at several Australian universities over the past 15 years, as well as conducting research into website success measures, social media and ethics. He is the author of Digital Disruption and Transformation: Lessons from History (2018) and Byline for the Dead (2025), and hosts the Clear as Mud and They Tried to Warn Us podcasts.