Barry Maciak
Senior Advisor
Barry has forged a fifty-year career working to create opportunities and seek justice and economic mobility for individuals with barriers, workers, communities, and social impact entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh, PA, and St. Louis, MO.
As Principal with Key Strategic Group, Barry introduces the client to the power of intersectionality by creating a cross-sector architecture designed to engage and leverage common interests and shared values to advance equity, justice, and economic mobility.
Throughout his 50-year career, Barry has served on the board of many non-profit organizations and is proud to have been involved as a founding developer and board member of several prominent non-profit organizations and social ventures. He has given presentations, seminars, and workshops throughout the United States, Northern Ireland, and Japan on the topics of manufacturing modernization, workforce development, economic development, community engagement, and industrial networking.
After moving from Pittsburgh in 2016, to be near family in St. Louis, Barry has continued to engage in social impact consulting. He currently serves as Principal Consultant for Key Strategic Group, LLC, and as the first Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Saint Louis University.
In 2010, Barry and his firm World-Class Industrial Network launched eCap Network, LLC, a social enterprise, in partnership with three non-profit economic and environmental development organizations. This social venture provided comprehensive energy efficiency and management services for smaller- and mid-sized industrial, commercial, institutional, and municipal facilities. Barry served as CEO until 2017, when eCap Network was sold to its largest customer, CPower, and expanded nationally.
In 1993, Barry formed World-Class Industrial Network, LLC (WIN), a project development and management-consulting firm staffed by a team of socially conscious entrepreneurs and experienced professionals. The WIN team shared a commitment to look beyond traditional solutions to improve the impact and performance of client organizations. He served as managing partner of the firm until December 2017, when he transferred his ownership in the firm to WIN’s junior partners.
Under Barry’s leadership, WIN engaged with hundreds of clients and consulted on several hundred projects providing strategy, program design, market development, revenue growth, information technology consulting, and social enterprise development services. WIN’s list of clients has included universities, economic development organizations, social service agencies, workforce investment boards, workforce training intermediaries, industry associations, government agencies, and private businesses.
WIN was the ‘turnkey’ contract developer and manager of the Institute for Economic Transformation at Duquesne University and Barry served as the Executive Director of the Institute for seventeen years. The Institute gained national attention and numerous awards for innovative programming in executive education and corporate training, as economic and workforce development initiatives.
In 1998, WIN was a co-developer of nationally recognized New Century Careers, a training collaborative developed to meet the critical skills gap in the region’s manufacturing sector and diversify the workforce by targeting low-income, minority, and women candidates. In 2000, Barry was asked by the NCC Board of Directors to become its president. Barry served in that position, while continuing as the managing partner at WIN, until November 2011, and continued to serve as a NCC Board Member until 2016.
Given the firm’s strategic interests in workforce development, WIN developed a professional services practice using a ‘process-driven model’ to design and implement systems for improving outcomes and continuously improving performance. As managing partner, Barry was the lead consultant in over eighty client engagements through the WIN Workforce Innovations practice. Several of these initiatives were identified, studied, and promoted as best practices by entities including Jobs For the Future, The Aspen Institute, the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research, SURDNA Foundation, Fortune Magazine, Deloitte, and the Wall Street Journal.
In 1988, Barry joined the newly forming Southwestern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Centers (currently Catalyst Connection). During his tenure as managing director, the state-funded organization gained national and international recognition as a leading industrial modernization program and became one of the first Manufacturing Extension Partnerships funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In 1978, Barry joined the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, Bureau for Social Programs and Community Action where he was at the forefront of forming and funding community and social development organizations throughout Southwestern PA. In response to the growing numbers of unemployed industrial workers in the region during the 1980s, Barry was asked by the Diocese to convert a closed Catholic high school into the Bishop Boyle Center. This Center became a thriving hub for housing emerging businesses, economic development, and training programs focusing on the needs of the region’s unemployed and displaced workers. Barry’s work was recognized by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette when it named him as one of the region’s ‘People to Watch’ alongside the future Mayor of Pittsburgh.
Barry’s organizing career launched in 1976 as a community organizer for the federal anti-poverty organization, Community Action.
When not working, Barry and his wife enjoy spending time with their son and his family (especially their two lovely granddaughters), exploring regional cuisine, and relaxing with British, Australian, and American mystery series television.
KEY EXPERIENCES
Managing Director, Catalyst Connections
During his tenure as managing director of the Southwest Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (now Catalyst Connections), Barry built a team that gained international recognition as a world-class industrial modernization organization and qualified as one of the first Manufacturing Extension Partnerships funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Executive Director, Institute for Economic Transformation at Duquesne University
Barry served as the Executive Director of the Institute for seventeen years. The Institute received numerous awards for innovative programming and stakeholder partnerships in executive education, corporate training, career literacy programming, and economic and workforce development initiatives.
Founder & Managing Partner, World-Class Industrial Network, LLC
As Founder and Managing Partner of World-Class Industrial Network, a Pittsburgh-based project development and management consulting firm, Barry founded and built a team of socially conscious entrepreneurs and experienced professionals, that share a commitment to look beyond traditional solutions, to improve the impact and performance of organizations. Barry provided strategy, program design, market development, revenue generation, workforce development, and social enterprise development services for twenty-five years at WIN, before moving to St. Louis in 2016.
Co-Founder & President, New Century Careers
Barry was the co-founder and principal developer of New Century Careers (NCC), a nationally recognized collaborative designed to meet the critical skills gaps in the manufacturing sector. NCC’s Manufacturing 2000 (M2K) entry-level machinist training program targets low-income, minority, and women candidates to fill the skills gap in the precision machining industry and improve diversity in the region’s manufacturing workforce. M2K is the principal supplier of entry-level machinists in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Mr. Maciak served as president of New Century Careers until November 2011 and continued to serve as a Board Member until 2016.
Founder & CEO, eCap Network, LLC
Barry founded and served as CEO of eCap Network, LLC, which was formed in partnership with three mission-based organizations. This social enterprise provided comprehensive energy efficiency, carbon reduction, and management services for smaller- and mid-sized industrial, commercial, institutional, and municipal facilities. Barry served as CEO until 2017, when eCap Network was purchased by its largest customer, CPower, and expanded nationally.
Social Entrepreneur in Residence, Saint Louis University
Barry’s role is to connect the University with urban impact initiatives and to advance social enterprise development.