Barry has long been passionate about African wildlife, visiting numerous parts of Africa regularly for over 15 years. As he learned more about the conservation challenges facing wildlife in East Africa and the organizations that were addressing these challenges, he was most impressed by Big Life’s vision and their uniquely innovative community based solutions. He decided to get involved with Big Life to help the organization expand its reach and achieve its objective to preserve wildlife and wild lands.
His career has spanned two industries: real estate and banking. He co-founded Blickman Turkus (BT) Commercial Real Estate in Northern California and was a founder /director of both Silicon Valley Bank and Bridge Bank. All companies ultimately established national footprints. Recently BT was sold to Cushman Wakefield and Bridge Bank was sold to Western Alliance Bancorp. Barry has also been an active board member of several non-profit organizations over the last 30 years. Most recently he was the chairman on the Board of Directors of the International School of Florence and he continues to support the iSing girls choir organization in California.
He splits his time between Italy and California, and enjoys traveling with his wife Jody. Barry can be reached at
