About Us
A small firm by design.A wide view by training.
Barks brings clinical psychiatry and business strategy together to help leaders make sound decisions when the stakes are high.
Why the firm exists.
What it was built to do.
Barks began with a simple observation from clinical practice and the boardroom alike. Leaders rarely fail for lack of intelligence. They fail when emotion, pressure and unspoken dynamics cloud judgment.
Those forces are not mysterious. They can be described, examined and worked with, in the same careful way a clinician works. Applied to a business decision, that discipline changes the quality of the choice.
We stay deliberately small. Every engagement is led personally, and we take on only the work we can do properly.
Our principles
Discretion
What is said to us stays with us. Engagements are kept small, senior and unpublicised, because that is what makes honesty possible.
Rigour
Our views are formed through structured assessment and clinical training, not impression. We show you how we reached them.
Candour
You will hear what we actually think, including when it is unwelcome. Anything less would not be worth your time.
Founder
Dr Balu Pitchiah
Consultant Psychiatrist · MBA (Oxford)
Dr Balu Pitchiah is a Consultant Psychiatrist with an MBA from Oxford. His training brings a close understanding of how pressure, emotion and relationships affect judgment, alongside a grounding in business strategy.
At Barks, Dr Balu Pitchiah brings these perspectives together for leaders, boards and family enterprises. He helps you look beyond the immediate decision to the assumptions and unspoken pressures that may be shaping it.
His approach is careful and candid: first understand the situation, then make the options clearer. Your work with Barks is confidential advisory work, not clinical care or diagnosis.
Based in London.
Working internationally.
Our office is in central London and much of our work takes us elsewhere. We travel to clients, and we meet in whatever setting keeps the conversation private.
Every conversation
starts in confidence.
Tell us only what you are comfortable sharing. We will listen, and advise you honestly on whether we are the right people to help.