Gregory S. Barsh has more than 20 years of experience delivering successful business and technology solutions through leadership and management positions in the energy, high-tech, and real estate industries. 

Astute at identifying both long and short term opportunities, Greg focuses on maximizing the value proposition as perceived from the target market’s perspective. 

Greg achieves above average enterprise growth levels and profitability by concentrating on the trends, business segments and products that offer the highest margins and compound annual growth rates.   Combined with an efficient approach to expenditures and a critical eye for cash flow, overall bottom line results are superior.

Passion

Greg’s passion is leveraging high growth, long term patterns by developing and implementing business strategies to monetize these “Megatrends.”  Megatrends provide extremely high compound annual growth rates over the course of twenty years or more as compared to the overall economy. 

Since 1987 Greg has been keenly interested in these long term high-growth patterns, particularly in the Energy, Technology and Real Estate industries.

1. •Energy:  Greg has closely followed the energy industry since the 1990’s, focusing on the implementation of cost effective energy efficiency initiatives.  Residential and commercial efficiency upgrades with a payback of less than one year are not uncommon and a great number of retrofit payback periods fall within a two to three year range.  Mr. Barsh feels that when also positioned as being cost effective, energy efficiency will achieve deeper penetration into the mainstream market.
   

1. •Technology: Since 2000, Greg has been involved in creating two implementation strategies for Distance Learning initiatives (i.e. University of Phoenix- like internet based education).  Before that, Greg’s firm developed software focusing on Knowledge Management, the collection and then redeployment of an organization’s best practices.  He entered the Technology industry in 1987 leveraging the rapid growth of Software Engineering, the application of traditional engineering principles to large scale and complex software development.  Software Engineering is still a major Megatrend according to the Department of Labor.
   

1. •Real Estate:  Greg has been developing Luxury Second Homes since 1993.  Statistically, the bulge in the baby boomer curve has been approaching the average age of initial second home ownership.  It is expected that an increasing annual number of America’s 79 million baby boomers will purchase second homes, with this trend remaining through at least the year 2025.  Greg’s implementation strategy has focused on two main variables that work to increase demand while dramatically limiting supply: areas that enjoy five star reputations which also have severely restricted future development possibilities.  Greg’s more recent projects include oceanfront and ski in / ski out properties in Islamorada in the Florida Keys and Deer Valley and Park City in Utah.
   

Areas of Expertise

Venture Development       

    Opportunity Identification                

    Value Creation Strategies                   

    Plan Formation and Execution   

                                    

Business Functions

    Profitability Analysis   

    Corporate Innovation

    Growth

    Leadership

    Negotiations

Significant Achievements

As a CEO and General Manager, Greg has had complete P&L responsibility, with full year compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) ranging from 27% to 114%. 

Following graduate school, Greg co-founded a segment leading software company, which had eight straight years of increasing revenues and profits, with a 60% CAGR. 

Greg then led the team that sold the company to MCI, where he remained for two years as a Vice President orchestrating a successful turn around effort following a flawed $70 mil MCI investment. 

Following MCI, Greg spent five years providing strategic consulting services and developing luxury second homes in resort areas for rental, most of which he has retained.  Most recently, Mr. Barsh has been active in the energy industry, focusing on the use of cost effective energy efficiency initiatives as a strategic entry point into the sustainable energy arena.

Negotiations

Mr. Barsh has led negotiating teams for over 20 years, focusing on strategy and preparation.  He has a formal background in negotiations, and has presented both beginner and advanced public and private seminars in negotiating techniques.  He finds the negotiating strategies of the East Asian cultures of particular interest.

Adjunct Professor

Since 2002, Professor Barsh has taught graduate school at Philadelphia University to candidates of either a Master of Science in Fashion Apparel Studies from the School of Engineering & Textiles or a Master of Business Administration from the School of Business Administration.

Professor Barsh currently presents Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  This interdisciplinary seminar focuses on the sources of change and innovation in the business environment, and strategies for managing change, especially in dynamic environments. 

The course reviews the impacts of technological innovation as well as social, economic, and cultural change on management strategy.  Topics include a systems framework for understanding the types of change, purposeful entrepreneurship, reframing as a change management tool, and the practice of innovative leadership in diverse organizational settings. 

In the fall of 2007, Professor Barsh expanded the curriculum to include an internet based distance learning module (e.g. University of Phoenix), comprising over one third of the seminar.  This was accomplished utilizing the Blackboard Learning System web-based infrastructure.

Professor Barsh has previously presented Entrepreneurship, which provides an overview of the major elements of entrepreneurial activity.  These include planning and evaluation of the business, financing, typical operating and administrative issues and alternatives for growth and sale.  Entrepreneurial opportunities and challenges are examined and a variety of venture opportunities are analyzed.

The course gives students a realistic look at the challenges involved in starting a viable business while helping the students in a personal evaluation of their own skills, talents and career potential.  Utilizing business planning software, each student prepares a comprehensive business plan for a business opportunity the student selects and perceives to be viable and practical.  The plan is often utilized for presentation to potential investors.

Affiliations

Greg is a member of the Kelley School of Business Dean’s Advisory Counsel at Indiana University since 2004, where he serves on the MBA Student Recruiting Committee.  U.S. News and World Reports ranks Kelley’s undergraduate and graduate programs in the top twenty nationally while the Princeton Review honors Kelley with a number one ranking in the country for the overall quality of the classroom experience and a number two ranking for their quality of professors. 

Greg is a member of the Philadelphia University School of Business Administration Advisory Board where he serves on the Executive Committee (by a vote of his peers), the By-laws Committee, and as a Mentor.  Greg has been involved in the Philadelphia University internet based distance learning strategic initiatives since 2000.  Philadelphia University School of Business Administration now offers two online graduate degree programs.

Finally, Greg serves on the Gratz College Board of Regents, where he has also been involved in their segment leading internet based distance learning initiatives.  Gratz currently offers five online graduate degree and certificate programs and over one hundred online courses.

Greg previously served on the Gratz College Board of Trustees.  He has also served on the Board of Advisors of the Information Technology Business Center at the University of Pennsylvania.  Finally, Greg has been a judge at various student competitions at schools including the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Philadelphia University School of Business Administration, and West Chester University College of Business and Public Affairs. 

Education and Honors

Greg received his Juris Doctor from Tulane Law School and his Master of Business Administration in Finance and Marketing from Tulane University.  Prior to that, Greg earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Distinction in Management & Administration from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.  His honors include membership in the Beta Gamma Sigma (Business) and Sigma Iota Epsilon (Management) honor societies.

Admissions and Licenses

Greg is an attorney in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is also admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. 

Greg holds a real estate broker’s license in Pennsylvania.

Selected Presentations, Publications, and Quotations

Greg has been quoted in, written articles for, or spoken at media outlets including:  ComputerWorld; the Eastern Technology Council; Ed Yourdon’s Cutter I.T. Journal; the Globalcon Energy, Power, and Facilities Management Conference; The Information Technology Business Center at the University of Pennsylvania; Men’s Health; the National Association of Energy Service Companies Conference; the Software Entrepreneur’s Equity Forum; Software Magazine; West Chester University; and the World Energy Engineering Congress.