Founder and CEO, Tercera
Chicago, IL
Years of Service: 2016–2026

Chris G. Barbin is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of business, technology, and investment experience across start-ups, private and public companies. He is currently the founder and CEO of Tercera, a growth equity and advisory firm specializing in helping IT professional services businesses grow and scale. He co-chairs Bates College’s advancement committee and works with the next generation of entrepreneurs leading Bates’ student venture competition—Bobcat Ventures.

Chris began his career at Grainger, a Fortune 500 industrial supply company that he helped launch into the Internet age with Grainger.com—one of the first B2B e-commerce platforms. From there he moved to webMethods, where, as SVP of Global Services, he helped grow the company valuation from $50M to $10B. Chris is best known for his leadership at Appirio, a global cloud services business that he co-founded in 2006 and led for 12 years as CEO. Appirio was one of the early pioneers in cloud computing and grew to 1,200 people in five countries. It was eventually acquired by Wipro Technologies in October of 2016 for $550M.

Chris holds board positions at Tercera, BeyondID, Valiantys & Zennify and is co-owner and a board member of Southern Grist (Nashville’s #1 craft brewery) and is chairman and co-founder of Compoveda (a high-end, private label tequila) and SipTequila.com (a direct to consumer e-commerce platform which distributes Compoveda and dozens of other rare, artisanal tequilas).

Chris splits his time between Chicago, IL and Mexico now that his kids Kate & William have left the nest. Chris enjoys spending his downtime largely on the water kayaking, outrigger canoeing and rowing while also supporting budding entrepreneurs, his personal investments and a number of charitable organizations including Project Healthy Minds, Providence Farm, and various conservancy-related organizations globally.