Barry Wishner

Barry Wishner has served as an adviser to business leaders since 1993 when he began his personal, in-depth interviews with more than 350 Fortune 500 CEOs and another 2000 high-powered business leaders, news-making entrepreneurs, and ground breaking mavericks and in the process he has identified The DNA Of The World's Most Admired Leaders and How They Get To The Top And Stay There.

His ongoing research studies include: How Remarkable CEOs Use Business Execution As The Competitive Edge; How America's Most Talented Presidents and CEOs Use Uncommon Leadership To Stay On Top; Study of Executive Assistants to Fortune 500 CEOs; and a Global CEO Study of Timeless Leadership Styles.

Barry has been a maverick in the business world for over 30 years, a cutting edge entrepreneur who likes nothing better than creating and running unique companies. After working for large organizations (Saga and Marriott) he decided to pursue the American Dream and started his own business, ProFormance, a management consulting firm with over $50 million in revenues. His company owned and operated a variety of businesses including management consulting for the health care industry, an innovative and award-winning restaurant in Santa Monica, California and designing, building and operating retirement communities in California and Nevada.

From Brooklyn to the Boardroom, Barry's career has been a rags-to-riches story. Growing up in humble circumstances, he adopted "Street Smarts" to survive and to fight for what he wanted. Being a maverick came naturally and B.S., "Brooklyn Smarts" have become his life lessons: quitting is easy, living with the quitting is the hard part; give it your best shot; take risks and laugh at failure. Barry's belief that life is a do-over (just because you fail once doesn't mean you don't get a second chance) has given him the curiosity and courage to question everything.

He obtained scholarships to Pratt Institute and then graduate school at CCNY (alma mater of Intel CEO Andy Grove and Colin Powell). After college he joined the Air Force as a Captain where he was a hospital administrator under the Surgeon General. He has been an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University (where he lectured on High Performance Leadership), City College of San Francisco's Business School, and Canada College Management School.

A civic leader who supports his community, Barry donates his time and energy by serving as a Consultant to the American Heart Association, and board member for the Santa Clara Methodist Retirement Foundation, Jewish Welfare Federation, the Japanese Federation, and the Elks.

Barry's fun and entertaining speaking style comes from his early childhood performances on NBC doing juggling and magic with his father, the original "Magic Clown," and Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop.

He has been called the down-to-earth business speaker who takes complex ideas and distills them into everyday language. From the hundreds of engagements with thousands of business people (senior executives, managers, top producers and entrepreneurs), audiences have praised him with quotes like "Barry has the passion of Tom Peters (In Search Of Excellence) and the content of Jim Collins (Good To Great)."

Barry Wishner Is A Business Agitator who provokes people to take action as he challenges all their previously held assumptions. An advisor and confidant to America's most successful business leaders, Barry provides compelling observations on what makes them tick.

Topics: The Power To Execute Change... How Leaders Make Things Happen

On Top And Still Climbing

Innovative Leadership In Extraordinary Times

No Limits... No Boundaries

Dare To Be Different... The Rewards Are Incredible

The Power of One