Chris Chuang

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Relay

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Chris Chuang is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Relay, a Raleigh, North Carolina company that sells push-to-talk devices and a cloud software platform to replace two-way radios for frontline workers. Its users include hotels, casinos, manufacturers, healthcare providers and security teams. Relay reports 461% revenue growth over three years, more than 40 Fortune 500 customers and more than 100 patents. It has positioned itself around AI features such as real-time voice translation. Chuang’s route to Relay ran through the Raleigh telecom company Bandwidth, where he was Chief Operating Officer. He then became CEO of Republic Wireless, the consumer carrier Bandwidth spun off in 2016 and whose subscribers DISH bought in 2021. Before operating roles he was a venture investor at TCV and a consultant at McKinsey.

Career Highlights

• Co-founder and CEO of Relay, named No. 175 on the 2025 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and No. 920 on the 2025 Inc. 5000.
• Recognised as an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 Southeast Award winner, according to Relay.
• Expanded Relay’s leadership in January 2026, hiring a Chief Marketing Officer and a Chief Financial Officer.
• CEO of Republic Wireless through its November 2016 spin-off from Bandwidth, and through DISH’s May 2021 purchase of its wireless business and about 200,000 subscribers.
• Chief Operating Officer of Bandwidth.com, as listed in its 2011 SEC filing.
• Listed as a director of ArenaCX, Inc., a Raleigh company, in its SEC filings from 2020 to 2025.

Professional Journey

Chuang describes his early career as venture capital investing at TCV and consulting at McKinsey, before he moved into running companies. By 2011 he was Chief Operating Officer of Bandwidth.com, a Raleigh-area communications company then led by chief executive David Morken, according to that year’s SEC filing. Republic Wireless, a consumer mobile service, began inside Bandwidth. On 30 November 2016 Bandwidth spun Republic off to its own shareholders. Chuang signed the separation paperwork as Republic’s Chief Executive Officer, and was still signing as CEO in June 2019.

Relay also began inside Republic. A March 2021 news item listed on Relay’s own press page describes Republic as Relay’s parent. In May 2021 DISH Network completed an asset purchase from Republic Wireless, taking about 200,000 wireless subscribers for an upfront cash payment and an earn-out. Relay stayed in Raleigh with Chuang at its head. Relay, Inc.’s SEC filings list him as an executive officer and director. Bandwidth’s Morken and John Murdock sit on its board.

As CEO, Chuang has moved Relay from selling a device towards selling what it now calls an “Intelligent System of Action” for frontline work. That means capturing radio conversations and location data and adding software on top, including TeamTranslate, which translates voice across teams in real time. In 2024 Relay launched RelayX, and in 2025 it launched the smaller RelayM device and a hardware lifecycle programme called Fleet Shield. Relay, Inc. reported in SEC filings a 2023 offering of about $12.9 million and a later offering, first sold in May 2024, of about $42.1 million. In January 2026 Relay announced 461% three-year revenue growth. It also appointed Matthew Welch as Chief Marketing Officer and Shiv Hira, formerly of Bandwidth, as Chief Financial Officer. “The global deskless workforce has been starved of innovation for too long, relying on 20th century tools to solve 21st century problems,” Chuang said.

Education

No education record was found in any primary or first-party source.