The Founders - Barry Barnes

Life Summary So Far: Work has been hard, yet exciting – I feel like I have made a difference… and trust that I continue to do so. I have always lived “outside the box” – this made life tough… but fun. I love my wife, kids, and grandkids. I enjoy people. Retirement, though initially painful, is now rewarding. I have lots of interests and avocations – being somewhat of a Renaissance Man – which keep me occupied. I wouldn't change Life a bit.

Wife: I married Liz in 1983 – she is and has been the light of my life. Our life has been fun, adventurous, and full of good companionship. We like each other and enjoy traveling, going out on dates, riding in our Classic Cars, sampling ethnic food, and a wide variety of other activities.

She worked earlier as the Executive Assistant for the CEO of BDS, Inc. (a Silicon Valley printer manufacturer) and then for all three of my consulting firms in successively more responsible logistics and financial management roles. Liz re-joined the work force in 1991, rising quickly from a “temp” worker to a member of the company’s Executive Team, managing five call centers (two in Oregon, one in Grass Valley, one in Hollywood, and another in Wisconsin and coordinating activities for ones in Japan and London) for Grass Valley Group, Inc., a subsidiary of Tektronix. She then ran several small businesses part-time from 1999 until late 2004. She became a Customer Relationships Manager with PC-Doctor, Inc., a computer diagnostics software firm in Reno, Nevada in late 2004.

Adult Kids: With Liz Haggard Barnes: Lianne, 1985, college student, nanny, store employee, and singer, Grass Valley, CA and Kelly Len, 1979, food services supervisor, mother of David, Ben, & Ethan and wife of Rob Flecksteiner, Penn Valley, CA;. By Charlene Campisi Barnes Stephens: Jenn, 1972, Denton, TX, mother of AJ & Lucas and wife to Christopher Fili, former production manager and sales director; Kelly Michelle, 1969, interior designer and wife of Brad Bullock, Irving TX; and Stacey,1966, international attorney, father to Alex & husband to Tanya, Houston, TX.

Homes: We lived in the Silicon Valley area, and then moved to the country, in the California “Gold Country” foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1989 where we lived on two small farms, then a development in the country near Grass Valley, CA for 15 years.

Retirement: I retired early at age 47 in 1991. I built a home and a windpower / photovoltaic off-grid energy system. I have spent time on: Major landscaping projects; construction; woodworking; website construction; software; music; reading; dining at ethnic restaurants; collecting model cars, antique cameras & radios; singing in a band & running the soundboard; restoring a 1950 Ford and a 1978 MGB; supporting our homeowners association; and traveling about three months per year to Mexico, Europe, Canada, dozens of U.S. destinations, and taking numerous cruises.

Our move to Reno has been a surprisingly good one and we enjoy being back in a city... and particularly all the good ethnic and quality food available at the thousands of Reno restaurants. We love traveling and vacationing together and just the everyday things of life.

Recently Owned Businesses: We own Great Scale Models (selling scale models over the internet), EffectivenessGrowth (an in-process, internet-based business focused on personality profiling, personal development, business skills, and selling off excess parts from "Barry's Classic Cars"). We formerly owned Gran’Mom & Bop’s Snacks (a vending route), GBS Financial Services (which sold securities, annuities, long-term life insurance, and variable life insurance) GoldMetal Building Systems (which sold, designed, and sometimes managed construction of pre-engineered, high-quality residential steel-framing systems). Liz operated them, I supported her.

Webmaster & Ringmaster: Barry is webmaster and ringmaster for numerous websites and webrings, such as:

Scale Models WebRing

Models - Trains, Planes & Automobiles WebRing

Classic Cars of the Western U.S. States & Britain WebRing

Classic Chevys International WebRing

Classic Mustangs WebRing

Reno, Nevada - Its Other Side WebRing

Great Scale Models

Barry's Classic Cars

Barry's Lifelong Love of Cars

Barry's MGB Classic Cars

Our Websites & Webrings

Great Scale Models
Yahoo Groups - Scale Models
Barry & Liz Barnes
The Reno MG - All British Car Club
Others.

Church & Volunteer Work: At current church, Sierra Pines United Methodist, have been: Member of Family Life Committee; Chair of church's Administrative Council; Chair of Vision & Strategy Committee; Co-Chair of 4-day Family Camp; “Dinner Dean” for mid-week multi-generational youth program; Bible Study Teacher. At former church, Sunnyvale Presbyterian, was: Co-Leader of Logos program; member of Community Outreach Committee; and Program Co-Leader at 4-day Family Camp. Former Board Member of Minds in Recovery, a non-profit for mental health services.

Consulting: Leadership Growth Inc. ,1989-91, (converted from Barry Barnes & Company to corporate structure). Barry Barnes & Company, 1981-89, consulted to CEO's, officers, executives of “who’s who” Silicon Valley, Fortune 100, and multi-national firms in: Vision definition & strategy formulation; executive team-building; sounding board counsel; leadership growth; conflict resolution; inter-functional cooperation; product development process optimization; organizational development. Partially concurrently, also co-owned The Barnes & Senne Group, 1984-87, consulting to sales executives and trained sales managers and senior salespeople in the high tech and financial fields (often resulting in revenues increases in 100’s of %’s).

Entrepreneurial Incubatorship: Co-founded & helped launch Distinctive Solutions Corp. (software firm in financial field), Board Member, 1981-82. Partner in two entrepreneurial “incubators,” Meisman-Moore-Barnes Enterprises and Pleiades Associates (1982-84). These two firms helped develop and launch technologies in the fields of wind power, energy co-generation, ideographic language computer processing, and the firms, International WindPower (which ported windpower & windmill tower technologies from the U.S. to the Orient) and Thermal Power Systems (co-generation for recapturing "spent" power from steam electrical generation plants).

Chief Marketing & Sales Executive: Smith Dennis & Gaylord, Inc. (SD&G) 1979-81; stakeholder; launched seven major marketing and financial software products for multi-national companies; grew revenues significantly. This was a Silicon Valley firm supplying financial, process manufacturing, & order management software to large multi-national companies. Clients included ARGOSystems, Baker International, Dreyers Grand Ice Cream, Finnigan, Monolithic Memories, Roundtable Pizza, Seagate Technologies, and Shell Oil of the U.K., The Sierra Club, SmithKline Pharmaceuticals, and many others. SD&G was eventually acquired by Microsoft.

Founder / Co-Founder / Launch Team Member / Executive: Started, co-launched and/or was an equity executive with several more firms with strategy of founding, launching, growing rapidly, cashing out, starting another: Often ran several of these companies concurrently

MediaMessage Montage 1975-79, Owner. Advertising & promotion; promoted Tom Jones, Tanya Tucker, Seals & Crofts in the southwest; developed corporate positioning and marketing programs for high-tech firms and manufacturing reps
OutFront Publishing 1976-77, Co-Owner and Editor-in-Chief. National newsletter and publishing firm for parents & educators regarding special education with subscribers in 47 states
Barry Barnes Survey / Research 1975-78, Owner & Chief Consultant. Software assessment consulting)
Educational OutComes 1974-78, President Survey/research and software development in education field
EduSystems, Inc. 1973-74, President & Editor-in-Chief, national management magazine with subscribers in 50 states)
Intran Corp., 1973-74, Vice President. Business Development, survey/research and employment testing
ISS, Inc. 1971-74, President. Computer center effectiveness consulting, software assessment, software development, database development, management seminars
NCS, Inc. 1969-71, Regional Manager, Executive Team member. Launch team member, helped design high-speed optical scanner, launched product sales in South, produced 60% firm's revenues; firm grew to $400 million/year

Early Career in Mental Health & Education: Montgomery County Public Schools, 1967-69, (Director, Data Processing of this organization with 130,000 students & 15,000 employees in Washington DC suburbs); Bossier Parish Schools, 1965-67, (18,000 students; Director, Pre-School & Headstart [first voluntarily racially-integrated programs in South], Director, Research & Evaluation); Northwest Louisiana Supplementary Educational Services Center, 1966-67, (concurrent with Bossier Parish Schools; Proposal Writer & Assistant Director for center serving 150,0000 students); Shreveport Mental Health Center (previously worked for Shreveport Child Guidance Center, incorporated into the mental health center) 1964-65, worked 30 hours/week during college, therapy to emotionally disturbed children, internship usually required MSW).

Early Work: Owned Barry Barnes Custom Furniture business, 1964-67; worked 30 hrs/wk in high school & college: G. C. Murphy, 1960, (warehouse supervisor at age 17); JC Penney, 1960-64, (men’s wear sales); Sears, 1964-66, (men’s suit sales). Worked 30 hrs/wk at Forbes Air Base Commissary, (bagger), 1958-60;

Education: Dozens of management seminars during business career. Full physics scholarship to Oklahoma State University; transferred to Centenary College of Louisiana, graduated 1966 with honors in psychology; was married, had child, owned home during college; Bossier High School, 1962, 3.97 GPA, active in extra-curricular activities.

About Barry Personally

About Liz Professionally

About Liz Personally