Barney Quinn has ample international experience leading transformation initiatives in various functional areas of large corporations. His respect for the people he has worked alongside, his clear vision and his pragmatism in the context of decision-making all speak to his credibility in leading large-scale transformations.


Barney Quinn holds a BA in industrial engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires, where he graduated with a gold medal distinction for the highest grade-point average. He also received the prize for the best engineer of the year granted by the Professional Council of Industrial Engineers of Argentina. He then went on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School in Boston (USA.)



He is currently a board member of Telefónica in Peru and Uruguay. He also works with various companies in transformation efforts and business development.


Barney has carried out the bulk of his international career at the Telefonica Group. He joined the strategic planning department of Telefonica Argentina in 1992, following the privatization of the state enterprise. He occupied various positions there, giving him the opportunity to get to know the industry and the transformation challenges of a recently privatized company. Some of his most relevant accomplishments include creating the first department to serve large organizations in Argentina and the general management of Adquira (an electronic commerce platform for Telefonica’s B2B services) in Miami, launching operations in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Spain.


In 2001, Barney moved to Madrid where he was appointed General Manager of Strategic Planning and Business Development at DataCorp (the Corporate Client division of Telefónica). He also served on the executive committee of Telefónica España as the head of Strategy, Quality and Innovation in 2008 and 2009.



His knowledge around the challenges of the telecommunications industry and corporate strategy and his understanding of the impact of transformation on people and processes led him to the People area, where he took on the role of Global Head of HR for Telefonica in 2012. Also in 2017, he was recognized by HR Digital as the most influential HR director in Spain.


Barney then went on to become CEO of Hispam South for Telefónica, leading the overall business for the company in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay and serving as a member of the Executive Committee of the Telefonica Group.

Before joining Telefónica Barney Quinn was a consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) based in Santiago de Chile, where he began his international career. He also worked as an analyst in financial planning for Siderca (Techint group) in Argentina.


Barney’s passion for transformation processes and for helping leaders who face the challenges that arise through transformation has made him an international expert in leading change. One testimony to this is his book called “Defying Doom”, published in English and Spanish. He contributed as a TEDx Speaker in London in September of 2014, speaking about the challenges and keys to success in large-scale transformation.

On the academic front, Barney has taught for many years at Universitas (the corporate University of Telefónica in Barcelona) as well as on the Executive MBA of UNIR (Universidad Internacional de La Rioja).

He has been invited to present his experiences in leading change at IESE Business School and at the Instituto de Empresa in Spain. He has also been part of the faculty creating the Massive Open Online Course - MOOC (10 hours duration) on Leadership in Times of Change for MiriadaX, the world’s largest Spanish-language educational content platform.



In this course, Barney Quinn presents his model of the principal levers for change which include a one-hour interview with Nando Parrado, a survivor of the tragic plane crash in the Andes in 1972. The narrative and model are supported by the analogy between the organizational challenges of transformation and the waves of adversity that Nando and his fellow young survivors faced in the wake of that crash. Over 50.000 participants took part in the course over three years.