Barry Coleman

Barry Coleman, executive director, is designer of the groundbreaking TRM and TAM systems and the Riders cost-per-kilometre calculator. He has nearly 20 years’ experience in developing sustainable and sustained systems for managing motorised transport in hostile conditions.

After a philosophy (BA) degree at Manchester University Barry gained a postgraduate qualification in law and worked as a journalist for the Guardian, BBC and Forbes Magazine. Following a personal interest, he persuaded the Guardian sports desk to cover motorcycle racing and for some years he covered the sport as well as pursuing his career as a features writer. He then spent ten years as a consultant to industrial, commercial and public service bodies on corporate communications.

After seeing the lack of vehicle management and appropriate infrastructure in Africa Barry worked with African colleagues to design and develop Riders’ transport resource management system (TRM), a replicable mechanism for managing vehicles where there is no conventional support infrastructure. Barry currently leads the operations team in Riders for Health.

As co-founders of Riders, Andrea and Barry Coleman were selected to join the Schwab Foundation (World Economic Forum) world network of social entrepreneurs in September 2004. In 2006 they were named as recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and as Ernst & Young UK Social Entrepreneurs of the Year.