Kevin Barris, a Managing Director and leader of the Southwest Region, is an experienced communication and human resources professional with more than 30 years experience helping management teams develop business strategies and communicate them for action. He has spearheaded large, national and global efforts to help organizations understand and refine their business cultures. As part of this, Kevin has conducted more than 1,000 employee and management team focus groups around the world.

Kevin has worked with organizations of varying size – from local startups to large global multi-nationals – providing guidance to implement significant program and organizational changes, or helping define business identity through M&A events. In addition to his extensive experience in the private sector, Kevin also has significant service in the public sector, working with large school systems and state retirement programs.

Kevin’s background is as an award-winning journalist and sportswriter. (He openly admits that the two are not always the same.) Kevin spent several years covering sports at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and has had the pleasure of interviewing/profiling many of the school’s famous athletes, including: Mia Hamm, James Worthy, Davis Love III, and Lawrence Taylor among many others. He traveled with the 1982 UNC national championship basketball team, and although almost daily he saw, spoke with and occasionally played HORSE with then freshman Michael Jordan, to his credit he never asked for an autograph.

Kevin spent seven years helping Bank of America (then NCNB) merge acquisitions in Florida and Texas. He spent 10 years at Towers Watson leading large communication and employee research projects, often with Alan Schnur. The two worked together on several significant business culture engagements. In 2000 Kevin moved to Mercer where he was overall account manager and management team advisor for several of Mercer’s large, multi-national clients. Thanks to his relationships with Schlumberger, Air Liquide and Alstom, Kevin made multiple trips annually to Paris where he acquired a taste for Champagne and Burgundy.

Kevin is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, attending on the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship. He lives in Houston with his wife Susan and has two grown children, Melissa and Matthew. Kevin is actively involved with the Houston Golf Association, as well as serving as the Chair of the Houston Carolina Club for local UNC alumni.