Tony Barnes is an experienced private equity investor and corporate finance professional with a unique cross-cultural background in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. With over 35 years of practical experience in private equity and strategic advice, Barnes is a leader in his field. He co-founded and currently manages Lydden Partners LLC, a consultancy providing due diligence, human resources, and strategy consulting expertise for private equity funds, financial services organizations, multinational businesses, and non-profits.

Barnes has a diverse education background. He studied economics, accounting, corporate finance, and securities analysis at New York University, and he earned a BA in political science, international affairs, Asia studies, and Mandarin Chinese from Columbia University in the City of New York. His education also includes studying American diplomatic history, US, China, Japan from the 19th century forward, at the University of California, Berkeley.

Barnes has worked for many organizations over the course of his career. He was a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Quorum Associates LLC, a Partner and Director at Carré, Orban & Partners, a Co-founder and Managing Director at The Barnes Partnership London, a Vice President and Partner at Korn/Ferry International, a Managing Director of Banking Division at ICON Limited Merchant Bankers, and a Vice President at JP Morgan. Before his career in finance, Barnes was a soda jerk at The New York Times and a Special Weapons Technician in the United States Army (Ordnance Corps).

Barnes specializes in thirty-five years in global private equity investing and strategic advice. His clients have been early-stage and mature businesses, banks, fund sponsors, GPs, LPs, secondaries, placement agents, and gatekeepers. His practical experience in fund design, international financing advice, effective reward mechanisms, and partner search makes him an expert in his field.