John Barros

His father came to Cape Cod in the 1950s to work in the cranberry bogs.

Barros's parents later moved to Boston, raising John and his four siblings in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury.

He attended public school until his mid teens when he entered Boston College High school.

After completing his education at BC High, Barros then went on to attend Dartmouth College in Hanover New Hampshire.

At Dartmouth, John majored in Economics and African-African American studies.

On campus he performed in the Black Underground Theater Association, served as president of the African-American Society and was an active member of the Senior Honor Society, Casque and Gauntlet (C&G).

John is a candidate for a master's degree in Public Policy at Tufts University.

Barros first became involved in the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) at the age of fourteen.

By the age of seventeen, he was serving on its board.

He was the first youth elected to its board.

John F. Barros (born 1973) is an American politician, businessman, and civic organizer who was formerly the chief of economic development for the City of Boston.

He also served as the executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.

As a board member of the DSNI, he was featured in the 1996 documentary "Holding Ground", which focused on the DSNI.

In 1996 Barros began working as executive liability underwriter for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies in New York City.

He worked there through 1999.

He worked with dot-com startups such as Priceline.com.

In 1999, he returned to Boston to assume the position of executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in 1999.

In 2000, he became director of Cape Verdean Community UNIDO.

He has co-owned it since 2002.

He held this role until 2006.

Barros was a 2007 Barr Foundation Fellow.

Barros worked on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

In January 2010, Barros was appointed to the Boston School Committee.

He was a first Cape Verdean to serve on the committee.

During his time working as executive director, Barros was featured in the 2012 documentary "Gaining Ground", another documentary which focused on the DNSI.

He unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Boston in 2013 and 2021.

He is currently the managing principal for the Boston office of the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.

John Barros is the son of immigrant parents from the Cape Verde Islands.

He quit his job with the DSNI in order to launch a 2013 campaign for mayor.

He resigned this position in April 2013, in preparation for his mayoral campaign.

Barros co-owns, with his brothers, Restaurante Cesaria, in Boston.

Barros, a Democrat, ran the first of his two unsuccessful campaigns in Boston's nonpartisan mayoral elections in 2013.

In April 2013 Barros announced his intention to run for mayor of the City of Boston.

He failed to make it past the nonpartisan primary into the general election, placing sixth in the primary, with 8.10% of the vote.

In the primary, The Boston Globe made a dual-endorsement of both Barros and John R. Connolly.

Despite losing, Barros gained much broader recognition in Boston through his campaign for mayor.

Before he launched his own candidacy, Barros was approached by Marty Walsh about working on the campaign for Walsh's planned candidacy.

Walsh and Barros had been longtime friends.

The two had both grown up only blocks apart from each other.

In the 2013 mayoral primary, however, Barros and Walsh found themselves running against each other.