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.
He failed to turn the company around and was replaced by Steve Villa, who made an unsuccessful attempt to merge Muzak with DMX Music.
[12] In 2010, he started his private consulting business, Kobi Partners, LLC, in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
[15] After the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union went on strike in November 2012, opposing court-ordered wage concessions which had been agreed to by other unions, Rayburn requested court authority to liquidate the company because it was no longer able to meet production demands at its bakeries.
He has also done guest lectures on operational turnarounds for MBA programs at NYU, Georgetown, and Wake Forest University.