Barry – Biography – Updated June 2020
Barry O’Mahony founded Veritas Wealth Management, an independent financial planning practice, in 2004.
Barry holds the Certified Financial Planner CFP® Professional accreditation.
He has a Bachelor Degree in Economics, a Diploma in Business Administration, a Diploma in Social Studies (from Oxford) and a Diploma in Financial Planning.
Barry came to South Africa from Ireland in 1993 on an Oxbridge Rugby Tour. He joined Appleton, the asset management company, as a portfolio manager and was later head of client services. After five years he joined Brait Unit Trusts as the marketing director and was then made head of practice development of ipac South Africa.
He served on the Western Cape Committee of the FPI for 4 years. He was chosen as the FPI Financial Planner of the year in 2013-14.
He is a founding member of the Vulintaba Association, which encourages Lifestyle Financial Planning as a philosophy amongst independent financial planning businesses.
Barry is passionate about South Africa and the potential it holds. He founded the JDI Foundation in 1997, which gives professionals a framework in which they can use their skills, time, energy and money to help non-governmental organisations.
Barry is also very involved in rugby. He represented Ireland A and Munster at many different levels and also has a Blue from Oxford. He was the first team coach at the University of Cape Town (UCT) for three years.
Barry was one of the founders of Vuka Rugby which got more schools in the townships to play rugby. He then went on to be one of the founders of CoolPlay. CoolPlay uses sport as an analogy for life and teaches sports coaches drills and conversations that enable them to weave life lessons into the training sessions or team talks. CoolPlay is supported by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. They currently reach 1800 children every week in rugby and netball.
He is married to Lisa and they have a son Connor and a daughter Neave.
