Hostess CEO Gregory F. Rayburn Bio

Gregory F. Rayburn (born 1959) is an American businessman. He has been a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of several companies. He was the CEO of Hostess Brands in March 2012 until November 21, 2012.

After receiving an undergraduate and master of arts degree in Accounting from the University of Alabama in 1982 he became a partner for Corporate Recovery Services at Arthur Andersen until 1994.[1]


From 2002 to 2003 Rayburn was CEO of Sunterra Resorts which had gone into bankruptcy in 2001.[4] It became Diamond Resorts International.[5]

From 2003 to 2004, he was Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) of Worldcom at a time when it changed its name from Worldcom to MCI. The company eventually emerged from bankruptcy in 2004 and subsequently was purchased by Verizon Communications.[6]

From 2004 to 2005 Rayburn was CRO of AAIPharma Services Corp. in Wilmington, North Carolina. The company had run into trouble in a scandal over its accounting practices in 2004 and went into bankruptcy in 2005 after selling its pharmaceutical division to Xanodyne.[7]

From 2005 to 2006, Rayburn was CEO of Muzak, which was struggling at the time. He failed to turn the company around, and was replaced by Steve Villa who made an unsuccessful attempt to merge with DMX Music. The company eventually went into bankruptcy in 2009–3 years after Rayburn left.[8]

From 2009 to 2010, Rayburn was CEO of thoroughbred horse raising company Magna Entertainment which was in bankruptcy.[9]

From 2010 to 2011, he was CEO of New York City OTB. After the New York Senate rejected his plans for a turn around, he shut the city's OTB operation.[10]

From 2011 to 2012, Rayburn was CRO of the Indiana Downs race track which morphed into the Indiana Grand Casino racino.[11]

In 2010 he started his private consulting business, Kobi Partners, LLC in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
In 2011, Rayburn was named a board member of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which had gone into bankruptcy.[12]

In March 2012, he became CEO of Hostess Brands, a month after the company had gone into bankruptcy. He initially was brought in as CRO in February 2012, to CEO Brian Driscoll but replaced Driscoll within a month.

[13] After the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union went on to strike in November 2012, opposing court ordered wage concessions, he took the company into liquidation.