John A. Barnes

I am assistant director for Leadership and Colleague Communications at Pfizer Inc. That’s my day job. I’m a native New Yorker, born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn.

I graduated New York University in 1982 with a B.A. in journalism, but left NYC almost immediately to work for the Washington Times as a metro reorter. I thus began the gypsy life of a journalist, moving, in succession, from Washington, Boston, Detroit and Norfolk, Virginia before returning to NYC in 1995. In addition to the Washignton Times, I worked as a reporter and editorial writer for the Boston Herald, the Detroit News, the New York Post and columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak. My freelance articles have appeared in the Reader’s Digest, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Monthly, America’s Civil War and many other publications.

Along the way, I acquired a master’s degree in Finance and Economics from Walsh College in Troy, Michigan. I joined Pfizer in 1999.

John F. Kennedy on Leadership, published in May 2005, is my third book. My previous ones were Ulysses S. Grant on Leadership, published in May 2001, and Irish-American Landmarks: A Traveler’s Guide, published by Visible Ink Press in 1995. I have also contributed to two other books, the Encyclopedia of the Irish in America and Presidential Administration Profile for Students.

I live in Manhattan with my wife Mary, our daughter, Mary Elisabeth, and our son, John Paul