The Reinventors

Corporate to health nonprofit

Episode Summary

Barry's decision to leave his corporate job to work for a health nonprofit was deeply personal.

Episode Notes

Barry's decision to leave his corporate job to work for a health nonprofit was deeply personal.

When you’re having one of those tough days at work, it helps to focus on the big picture. To remind ourselves why we do what we do. That sense of perspective is what motivated Barry Greene. 

Barry started out working as an accountant in corporate tax. And then an opportunity came up to join the Global Fund, which is a nonprofit that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Barry had personal ties to each of those diseases. In fact, he’d lost his best friend at the height of the AIDS epidemic. So he became the Global Fund’s first chief financial officer and continued working in global health after that, as the managing director - finance & operations at Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. 

Barry says when it comes to shifting our careers, it’s the things we don’t do that we regret most in life. And contrary to the popular idea of accountants, Barry took real risks in his career - and they paid off.  

You can contact Barry at bgreene@bluewin.ch.