Barry Urban has been working as a management consultant specialising in the Theory of Constraints (ToC), and also using his knowledge and experience as a qualified CA(SA), plus tools from Lean and Six Sigma for more than twenty-five years. He worked as an associate of the Avraham Y Goldratt institute for 5 years before starting his own small consulting firm, TOCE Consulting, in South Africa. As a change management and business improvement consultant, Barry’s areas of specialisation include financial analysis, operations improvement, strategic planning, project management, change management, systems analysis and diagnostics, supply chain management, executive coaching and behaviour change implementation. In 2020 He registered with CIPC as a Business Rescue Practitioner and is a franchisee of the Sagacity organisation.
Having consulted in almost all industries he has wide-ranging experience and knowledge, including of large mining operations in the gold, platinum, coal, copper, zinc and diamond mining fraternities.
He is also currently part of an international team involved in the “Rapid Planning” research project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which aims to assist municipalities in terms of sustainable infrastructure, environmental and resource management for highly dynamic metropolises. The project team is working with the municipalities of Da Nang in Vietnam, Kigali in Rwanda and Assuit in Egypt.
Prior to the Rapid Planning project, Barry was involved in Solid Waste management projects in Kano and Ibadan in Nigeria, and Kitwe and Lusaka in Zambia for Inwent, and in Kumasi, Ghana for GIZ (both German Aid agencies).
He has been involved in delivering projects in countries such as Egypt, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, UAE, Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia and Rwanda.
He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (S.A.) and is certified by the Theory of Constraints International Certification Organisation (TOCICO) as an expert in all areas of the ToC. He is a member of the Theory of Constraints Practitioners Association (TOCPA) and has presented papers at both local and international conferences. In his consulting to organisations he has often been requested to do executive coaching which he readily and regularly does.
Barry was an independent member of the finance committee of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) until 2020 when SAQA combined the finance audit committees.
Some years ago, he became an external examiner for the University of the Free State (UFS) as well as for the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). He is also as an external examiner and moderator for the Pearson Institute for Higher Education.
For five years, until 2020 when he became a Business Rescue Practitioner, he was a part-time facilitator/lecturer at The Da Vinci Institute for Management of Technology and Innovation, where he was the part-time head of faculty for Financial Accounting and Business Analysis. He lectured Business Analysis, Business Communication, Business Management, Principals of Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Management, Numeracy, Financial Literacy and Visual Intelligence classes.
Barry has done work as an instructional designer and he has designed and developed 25 modules for Da Vinci at NQF levels 5 to 7. He recently designing a higher certificate course specialising in foreign exchange for FNB. He has also moderated the development work of other developers for Da Vinci.