Dean Barnes - Relevant Experience

Current Positions - Training Consultant at Umbria Coffee Roasters & Operating Partner at 3DMedia.Ca

Dean’s Coffee/Education Industry Experience

With well over 20 years in the coffee industry, and 30 years in the education industry,  as a professional scuba instructor this program is a result of the culmination of that Dean’s experience in those fields, mixed with another former occupation, which is no longer former, and that professional photo/video production back in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

In terms of coffee, his initiation into the barista world started in the late 90’s when he helped a family member build and start a coffee house in the British Columbia interior. At the time he was on vacation while working in the Caribbean teaching dive programs. The experience inspired him to eventually do something similar. When he returned to his job in the Caribbean, he did so with a new goal, to one day own his own coffeehouse.

That dream became a reality in 2001 when he purchased a very successful coffee house, Bean Around the World in West Vancouver, BC, as it was celebrating 10 years of being in business. He also purchased the bakery next to the coffeehouse, B-Side Bakery. And as much work as it was, he knew he had found a passion.

As successful as the business was when he and his partners purchased the business, he and his team managed to reach several revenue records in the years that followed.

In 2008, he decided that he had other items to chase down on his bucket list, and made the decision to sell his shares of the business and pursue other opportunities in teaching and training relating to one of his hobbies during the years at BAW. Japanese Jujutsu.

He enjoyed working as an operations manager and staff instructor for Sensor Protection Group. There he spent much of his time teaching company and government certification programs in SPG's security training academy. He enjoyed that position for several years, and trained large numbers of security personnel needed for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Shortly after the Olympics, as the company was being sold, Dean moved on to follow one more passion which was online trading. He had taken a number of programs and gained skills in trading Options, Futures and Currencies. Eventually that led him to working and teaching part time, running workshops on trading and investing while he traded and

In 2014, while trading, teaching and consulting, Dean met Peter Lee and took a position at Umbria Coffee Roasters as a Client Support Executive. His duties there were right up his alley as they included, attending to the needs of existing clients, helping new clients train themselves and their staff and his favorite, building education programs. This led to the in class version of the Barista Level 1 Certification Program, held in the coffee lab you see in the video lessons. Soon after came the Barista Level 2 Certification Program.

Fast forward to March 2020. Businesses were locked down and it became clear that the brick and mortar classes would not be able to continue, which meant that proper barista training would cease unless a solution was found.

Dean approached Peter Lee and his former business partner Henri Persaud with an idea to go online. The Barista Level 1 Online Certification Program and 3DMedia.Ca was born.