Rex Beach worked in politics, government, academia, and finance before founding Financial Proformas, Inc. in 1981, which became the leading provider of financial analysis software and risk assessment education to banking and financial institutions around the world. The company was twice included on INC magazine's "500" list of fastest growing, privately held companies in the U.S.

Earlier in his career, Beach was legislative assistant to Senator James B. Pearson in Washington, D.C., Assistant Professor of Economics at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, David M. Kennedy in Washington, D.C., U.S. Executive Director at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines with rank of ambassador. He worked in the International and Credit Policy divisions of Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, California prior to founding Financial Proformas, Inc., which was acquired by Moody's Investor Services in 1995.

Beach is currently president of Shockproof! Training, which provides commercial credit and risk assessment training to financial institutions.

Beach has a BA in economics from Kansas State University, an MA in international relations from The Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University.