Show Summary: Meet the candidate, Roger Barris, who is running for Congress in Colorado! Economist, entrepreneur, outdoorsman, and Libertarian, this man does it all! You won't want to miss this opportunity to get to know him more personally- sharp and professional, Roger is the libertarian everyone can get behind and support with stances that echo the call for freedom in all our hearts. Please check out his website, barris4congress.com and get familiar with this liberty warrior and candidate! So, Support The Show at PATREON
About The Guest: Roger was born in 1959 in Detroit, Michigan, as the second child of Ivan and Mercedes (maiden name “Menendez”) Barris. Roger attended various public schools in the Detroit area before going to the University of Detroit High School. U of D is a parochial school located in Detroit and dedicated to the academic excellence of its racially and religiously diverse student body. He excelled at U of D, earning numerous academic awards and being elected class president. As importantly, a high school friend introduced Roger to the libertarian philosophy of “free minds and free markets” at the age of 17. He has been a libertarian since then.
Roger then attended Bowdoin College in Maine, a so-called “Little Ivies” school. He was graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Economics in 1981 in 3 ½ years; he was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won other academic rewards. He spent his junior year at the renowned London School of Economics and Political Science. Bowdoin was also the beginning of his long-distance love affair with Colorado, to which he was introduced by one of his roommates, a Colorado native who has remained a friend to this day.
Roger used his early departure from college to teach English for 15 months in Tokyo, Japan, and then returned to the USA to enter the MBA program at the University of Michigan in the fall of 1982. Studying finance, he excelled again, being graduated in 1984 with High Distinction and earning other academic awards. Roger also took his first step in Libertarian Party politics by running as a candidate for County Commissioner in Michigan in 1982.
In 1984, Roger began working in the Treasurer’s Office of Exxon Corporation in New York City. Among other things, this job showed him that the absurd tax and regulatory environment meant that he, with clever structuring in NYC, could create far more earnings for the company than dozens of petroleum engineers in Houston. This is wrong.
After a brief period with a consulting firm, in 1987 Roger was hired by Goldman Sachs and began his 26-year career (with an 18-month gap) as an investor and entrepreneur, typically in a leadership role. Groups that Roger led made over $20 billion of investments into companies with hundreds of employees. His teams never lost money during any year, including during the Financial Crisis of 2008, which he anticipated in his personal and professional investing. Roger has never been one to follow the herd.
Roger quit working in NYC in early 1990 to move to France with the woman he would marry in 1994. While there, he taught finance at a local college, cycled in the lower Alps, and learned French. (Roger’s bilingual children would dispute this last claim.)When the money ran out in mid-1991, Roger was re-hired by Goldman Sachs in London. Later he would work for Deutsche Bank, Starwood Capital and Merrill Lynch.
In 2010, Roger fulfilled his dream of becoming an entrepreneur when he (and his two partners) founded Peak side Capital, a high-performing manager of real estate funds for institutional and high-net-worth clients. Peak side has had offices in London, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Poland and Prag