Barry Finlay had an extensive career in financial management before retiring in 2004, after thirty two years with the Canadian federal government. He is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and Certified Management Accountant (CMA) who dabbles in the arts as he is also an award winning decorative wood carver. Since retiring, he has divided his time between working as a consultant on financial policy matters, travel, playing golf, climbing mountains, philanthropy and enjoying his two grandchildren.
Barry has always tried to stay active but working at a desk for so many years eventually catches up. A visit to the family doctor, along with a number of other converging events, encouraged him to take hold of his life and gave him the motivation to climb a mountain. The desire to pursue philanthropy was spawned while growing up on the family farm in Rapid City, Manitoba, Canada and was nurtured by the experience of meeting the African children who would directly benefit from his fundraising.
His interest in writing grew throughout his career while his skills were being honed by authoring countless financial policies. While Barry’s family always encouraged him to inject his dry sense of humour into his financial policies, it just didn’t seem appropriate somehow. Now that time is a little more readily available, he has taken the opportunity to put his skills and his sense of humour to good use. The experience of climbing Africa’s highest mountain at age 60 with one of his sons, and discovering the satisfaction of reaching a goal and giving others the opportunity to achieve theirs, was a book waiting to be written. Kilimanjaro and Beyond, written with his son Chris, is Barry’s first novel but now that he has discovered the joy of writing, it won’t be his last.
Barry lives with his wife, Evelyn, in Ottawa, Canada.
Chris Finlay is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP) in Canada, as well as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the U.S. Writing books on subjects that people can easily read and understand is new to him. He spends most of his time writing about the tax and financial consequences of transactions in a language most people would rather not read.
When not working in the financial sphere or writing with his father he enjoys travelling and spending time with his wife, kids and dog. He lives with his family in Ottawa.