Barry Childs

Founder, Board Chair

Barry is the founder of Africa Bridge. He grew up in Tanzania and was raised in a world that no longer exists. Over more than seven decades, Barry’s life journey has taken him from Tanzania to South Africa, the UK, Germany, Chicago, Oregon and Fairport, NY. Along the way, he worked as a farmer and a multifunctional executive at Exxon and Abbott Laboratories.

In 1998, Barry returned to Tanzania for the first time in 35 years. During this trip, he realized how fortunate he was to be born into a family with the resources to feed, educate, and expose him to opportunities that his village friends could not even conceive of. Within 18 months, he had retired early in order to level the playing field for vulnerable children in Africa. Barry’s mission is to engage leaders in transforming the lives of vulnerable village children. In 2000, he founded Africa Bridge. Growing up in rural Tanzania with a father who was an agricultural adviser prepared Barry for this work as did life experiences such as working in different cultures and corporate experiences in multiple functions, including team building and Total Quality Management.