Blue Barn founder/CEO Phil Bull plans to grow his firm by 150% in 10 years. Phil Bull followed in his father’s footsteps to become an engineer, and was climbing the corporate ladder when, in his mid-30s, he realised he was unhappy, and struck out on his own. His first business, a small engineering consultancy, was wildly successful; his second, a restaurant, flopped. He returned to what he knew with the co-founding of Blue Barn Consulting in 2006, which today employs about 40 staff in Auckland and works across structural, transportation and land development engineering (co-founder Matt Lilly left in 2016 to become a pastor).