Barry Hoffner

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Barry grew up in a middle-class Jewish-Iraqi household in Southern California. A chance backpacking trip to Europe with a friend after high school altered the course of his life, igniting a passion that would shape his future: seeing the world.

After earning his MBA from Columbia University, Barry began a sixteen-year career in investment banking that took him across the globe. He lived and worked in cities such as Buenos Aires, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Zurich, Mexico City, and Moscow. Along the way, he and

his late wife, Jackie, took an extended sabbatical, spending nearly two years traveling through India and Southeast Asia, living in Kunming, China, and embarking on a five-month overland journey through Africa, from Nairobi to Cape Town.

After his final posting in Russia, Barry and Jackie settled with their two sons, Benjamin and Daniel, in Sausalito, Northern California. He left investment banking to pursue a quieter life farming wine-grape vineyards and an olive orchard for the next decade.

In 2010, Barry took a bucket-list trip to Timbuktu. Inspired by the desert, its people, culture, and music, he founded Caravan to Class, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to education for youth in West Africa. Since its founding, the organization has built and supported 18 French-speaking schools and now offers university and English-language scholarships to young West African women through the Bourse Jackie program, established in Jackie’s memory.

In 2017, Barry faced unimaginable loss when Jackie tragically passed away in an accident in Botswana. After a deep period of soul-searching, he turned once again to travel—not just for exploration, but for healing. His forthcoming book, Belonging to the World, chronicles his journey to every country on Earth and the profound ways in which the people he met helped him rediscover purpose and a sense of belonging.

Barry is proud to be the father of two remarkable young men who embody Jackie’s spirit of kindness: Benjamin, an economic researcher at Yale University preparing for law school, and Daniel, a wildland firefighter in Marin County.

Barry REFLECTS ON HIS TRAVELS

Barry's Book

More than just a collection of compelling globetrotting stories, Belonging to the World captures the thrill of evolving into a bolder traveler step by step, the power of releasing limiting narratives we often have about lesser-known countries, and the awe of forming profound connections with people from entirely different worlds—often without a shared language. This isn’t a journey of sorrow but an inspiring testament to finding purpose after loss, living fully at any age, and learning what it means to belong to this world.