Chris Barrow

Chris Barrow is a business coach, consultant, author and speaker who has spent more than three decades helping business owners think more clearly, lead more effectively and build stronger, more sustainable organisations.

For almost 30 years, his work has been focused predominantly on UK dentistry, where he has become a highly respected voice on the business of running an independent dental practice.

Chris began his career in the corporate sector before moving into business coaching in 1993, becoming one of the first UK students of Coach University and graduating as a certified coach.

In 1997, he founded The Dental Business School, creating a 12-month coaching programme for dental practice owners and their teams that went on to work with more than 1,000 UK practices over the following decade.

Since then, Chris has worked with independent practices, dental groups, corporates, suppliers and organisations across the profession, helping owners and leadership teams navigate growth, profitability, strategy, leadership, marketing, team development and the challenges that inevitably come with building a successful business.

His approach is characteristically direct, practical and energetic. Chris has a reputation for getting quickly to the heart of a problem, challenging conventional thinking and turning strategic ideas into actions that can actually be implemented.

In April 2026, Chris entered a new chapter in his career when Extreme Business was acquired by The Campbell Academy group. He subsequently became Director of Business Education at The Campbell Academy, bringing together his experience in business coaching with the Academy’s established clinical education, faculty and infrastructure.

Today, Chris continues to lead and coach within the Extreme Business community, now part of The Campbell Academy’s wider business education pathway. His work increasingly focuses on helping independent dental practice owners develop clear strategic plans, build capable Senior Leadership Teams and create businesses that are less dependent on the owner for their day-to-day success.

Chris is co-author of Profitable Dental Practice with Professor Phil Newsome and The E-Myth Dentist with Michael E. Gerber and Alan Kwong Hing. He has written extensively on the business of dentistry for more than two decades through his blog, newsletters, books and e-books, and remains a regular speaker and commentator across the dental profession.

Away from business, Chris also enjoyed a brief and rather unconventional spell on television in 2014, when he appeared as one of the original castaways on Channel 4’s The Island with Bear Grylls, spending a month surviving on a remote Pacific island.

More than 30 years into his coaching career, Chris remains focused on the same fundamental challenge: helping independent practice owners build businesses that deliver better results, create better lives for the people who own and work in them, and can thrive without everything depending on the principal.