Barbara Minto grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.
芭芭拉·明托（Barbara Minto）在俄亥俄州的克利夫兰长大。

She began her career on the staff of Cyrus Eaton, the industrialist who founded the famous Pugwash Conferences of nuclear scientists. Working as part of the team that organized and ran the conferences, she received sound training in tackling the problems of communicating clearly on technical subjects.
她的职业生涯开始于赛勒斯·伊顿（Cyrus Eaton）手下工作，伊顿是一位工业家，创办了著名的普格沃什会议（Pugwash Conferences），该会议讨论核科学家的相关议题。作为负责组织和运行该会议的团队成员，芭芭拉接受了如何清晰传达技术内容的系统培训。

In 1961 she left Mr. Eaton to attend the Harvard Business School, returning to Cleveland in 1963 to join McKinsey & Company, the international management consulting firm, as their first female consultant. Her ability to write was noted, and she was transferred to London in 1966, to concentrate on developing the writing skills of their growing European staff. All reports at that time were written in English, and it was thought that consultants not writing in their first language would experience special difficulties.
1961年，她离开伊顿先生，进入哈佛商学院学习。1963年返回克利夫兰，加入国际管理咨询公司麦肯锡（McKinsey & Company），成为他们的第一位女性顾问。她的写作能力得到了认可，1966年被调往伦敦，专注于提高欧洲团队的写作能力。当时的所有报告都是用英文撰写的，考虑到英语并非所有顾问的母语，许多人在写作中可能会遇到特殊的困难。

However, it became apparent to her very quickly that the writing difficulties in Düsseldorf and Paris were the same as those in New York and Cleveland. The problem was not so much to get the language right as to get the thinking clear. This insight led her to concentrate on discovering the structures of thinking that must underlie clear writing, and eventually to develop the ideas that make up this book.
然而，她很快意识到，在杜塞尔多夫和巴黎的写作困难与纽约和克利夫兰的情况相同。问题不仅仅是语言表达，而是思路不够清晰。这个洞察使她开始专注于探究清晰写作背后的思维结构，并最终形成了本书中的观点。

She still lives in London, but has since 1973 run her own firm, Minto International, Inc. She specializes in teaching The Pyramid Principle to people whose major training is in business or the professions, but whose jobs nevertheless require them to produce complex reports, analyses, memorandums, or presentations.
她目前定居伦敦，但自1973年起创办了自己的公司“明托国际公司”（Minto International, Inc.）。她专注于教授“金字塔原理”，帮助那些接受过商业或专业领域培训的人（但常常需要撰写复杂报告、分析、备忘录或演示文稿的人）掌握逻辑清晰的表达技巧。

She has taught her course to most of the major consulting firms in the United States and Europe, as well as to many of the country’s largest corporations. She has also lectured at the Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, and London business schools, and at the State University of New York.
她曾为美国和欧洲的多家顶级咨询公司以及众多大型企业授课。此外，她还曾在哈佛大学、斯坦福大学、芝加哥大学、伦敦商学院和纽约州立大学授课。