--- title: "Who's Who at FIRST HQ: Meet Chris Rake" description: Chris Rake is the Vice President of Programs here at FIRST Headquarters, but he is also a 15-year FIRST volunteer! image: https://community.firstinspires.org/hubfs/Chris%20Rake%20Whos%20who%20Photo%20web%20size.jpg --- Chris Rake is the Vice President of Programs here at FIRST® Headquarters, but he is also a FIRST volunteer! Inspired by the impact he saw FIRST have in real time, he took his career path from hardware engineer for NI to the world's leading youth-serving nonprofit advancing STEM education.  Chris Rake is the Vice President of Programs, supporting *FIRST*® LEGO® League, *FIRST*® Tech Challenge, *FIRST*® Robotics Competition, Education, Events, and Operations. He’s been working at *FIRST* Headquarters for two years, but also has 15 years of experience volunteering with *FIRST* serving in a variety of roles, including team mentor, judge, judge advisor, referee, and robot inspector. Before joining *FIRST*, Chris was a hardware engineer for NI, and helped develop the NI-based control system for *FIRST *Robotics Competition.    Chris’ favorite memory of volunteering with *FIRST* was seeing the impact of the mission on a student in *FIRST*  Tech Challenge. Over the course of several years, Chris witnessed the dramatic transformation of a shy and quiet team member, unsure of her abilities, into a confident technical expert and team leader. Seeing the change that *FIRST *can make firsthand inspired Chris to dedicate the next stage of his career to the mission.    Fun Fact: Chris is an avid photographer, and if you carefully check out the background of his video calls, you might spy some artifacts from his time spent in a darkroom.  ** [Volunteers](https://community.firstinspires.org/topic/volunteers) #### Share it: [** ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://community.firstinspires.org/whos-who-at-first-hq-meet-chris-rake) [** ](https://twitter.com/share?url=https://community.firstinspires.org/whos-who-at-first-hq-meet-chris-rake) [** ](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://community.firstinspires.org/whos-who-at-first-hq-meet-chris-rake) ![Default Author Image](https://community.firstinspires.org/hubfs/Community%20Blog%20v2/images/FIRST-author-icon.svg) Author [FIRST Staff](https://community.firstinspires.org/author/first) These blog posts have been contributed by members of *FIRST* staff. *FIRST* is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Manchester, N.H. ### Related Posts ** [Volunteers](https://community.firstinspires.org/topic/volunteers) Who's Who at FIRST HQ: Meet Amy Lynn Hunt August 29, 2021 ** [Volunteers](https://community.firstinspires.org/topic/volunteers) Who's Who at FIRST HQ: Meet Lee September 16, 2019 ** [Alumni](https://community.firstinspires.org/topic/alumni), [Volunteers](https://community.firstinspires.org/topic/volunteers) Who's Who at FIRST HQ? Meet Mark G! December 15, 2021 ![](https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1200203950045814&ev=PageView&noscript=1) ![](https://ct.pinterest.com/v3/?tid=2615041699514&noscript=1) ![](https://ct.pinterest.com/v3/?tid=2615041699514&event=PageVisit&noscript=1)