Barry Dornfeld

Senior Manager

Skills/Knowledge/Abilities
Recent Projects
Professional Facts
Selected Writing

Barry draws on his many years of work as a professor and his broad industry experience in consulting to help guide clients through difficult issues, and to learn from their experience.  He has consulted to a wide range of organizations in both the for profit and not-for-profit sectors. Barry teaches workshops and classes on topics such as negotiation, influence and persuasion, and organizational change, and has extensive experience with Wharton’s Executive Education division. He speaks to a wide range of groups in industries varying from healthcare to real estate and constriction to higher education.

Barry's experience as an anthropologist and filmmaker trained him to listen and ask questions, so that when an organization is seeking change, he can be attuned to what will actually work. Barry helps clients through complicated organizational change processes, recognizing that communication styles and culture can be leveraged to reach business goals. These qualities help him connect to and work productively with clients and participants in a variety of settings, and are critical in advising and teaching executives.

Whether working with a global company to develop business acumen among a new group of young executives, public broadcasters committed to reshaping their station's strategy in light of technological change, a growing family-owned real estate company trying to maintain its strong organizational identity and culture, or a nonprofit organization reexamining its mission, Barry understands that people invest their personal identities in their work, and organizations that recognize this can harness employees’ passions in ways that support both organizational and individual aspirations.

Barry Dornfeld is co-lead of CFAR’s Owner-led and Family Business practice, a member of our Collaboration and Campaign Approach to Change groups, and leads the firm’s efforts in Action Learning.

Skills/Knowledge/Abilities

• Systems Thinking - Understands the complex ripple effects set off by actions taken in one part of an organizations or industry.
• Executive and Organizational Development - Builds capabilities that support strategic directions and develop skills in negotiation and persuasion
• Analytic Insight - Can synthesize diverse sources of information into a coherent story.

Recent Projects

• For a large global corporation, he directs the Action Learning component of a three year Wharton Executive Education program.
• For a public broadcasting station, he worked with the leadership team to develop a new approach to strategy, visibility and membership that is seen as a pioneering approach nationwide.
• For a national nonprofit agency, he conducted a broad-based evaluation of a financial-management system.
• For a major hospital system, he worked with the top team to reorganize care management across the network.

Professional Facts

Co-leader of CFAR's Owner-Led and Family Business practice area.

Member of the Family Firm Institute's Body of Knowledge Committee .

Member of the Program Committee for the Pennsylvania Human Resources Professional Society

Ph.D. in Communication from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Serves as Chair of the Board and Chair of the Strategic Planning committee for the board of SEAMAAC, a not-for-profit offering social services to Philadelphia's Southeast Asian community.

Worked in higher education, developing the curriculum for and directing a new academic program in communication at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Documentary filmmaker for over 20 years, with numerous broadcasts, grants and awards.

Selected Writing and Speaking

“We are Smarter Than Me:  How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in your Business”, Wharton School Publications 2008

"Building the Next Generation in Dubai: Leadership Development in the Global Culture." Presentation at the Annual Symposium of the Family Firm Institute, Chicago, October 2007

"Social Capital, Civic Space, and the Digital Revolution: Emerging Strategies for Public Broadcasting."
In Public Broadcasting and the Public Interest.

"Putting American Public Television Documentary in Its Places."
In Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Producing Public Television. Princeton University Press. 1998.

Dear America: Transparency, Authority and Interpretation in a Vietnam War Documentary.
In From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War Film. Rutgers University Press.