Barry is a 1986 graduate of the University of Tennessee Knoxville with a BS in Nuclear Engineering and briefly pursued a MS in Computer Science at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Barry joined the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE) in April of 2003 after five years with Private Business, Inc. where he served as Senior Vice President, Director of Information Technology Services. While there he developed, built, and managed their state-of-the-art data center and back office applications in support of their product development and customer support teams.

Prior to Private Business, Inc., Barry was with Hughes Aircraft Company in several capacities, most recently as a Senior Systems Engineer for a DoD project that designed the Medium Extended Air Defense System or MEADS. Other experience includes complex weapon system modeling and associated computational techniques; high-energy laser, tracking, and focusing devices; orbital mechanics; spacecraft lethality analysis; endo/exo-atmospheric nuclear effects modeling; and Battle Management/Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (BM/C4I) doctrine.

During his employment with Hughes Aircraft, he received formal supervisory training, cost account management training, and senior management training at the Kellogg Center for Adult Education at the University of California Pasadena. He also received formal training of the Gartner Group IT Project Management Program.

Barry is celebrating his 26th year of marriage to Julie, and the couple has two children, Grant (21) and Elizabeth (18).