Steven Fink, President, Lexicon Communications Corp.
Steven Fink is one of the nation’s leading experts in crisis management and crisis communications. He is the author of the seminal work on the subject: Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable, which remains to this day the most successful and widely-read book on crisis management ever published.
A companion book, Crisis Communications: The Definitive Guide to Managing the Message, was recently published. Among other things, it covers the use – and misuse – of social media during a crisis.
During the infamous Three Mile Island incident, the nation's worst commercial nuclear power accident, he served on the crisis management team in the administration of then-Pennsylvania Governor (and former U.S. Attorney General) Dick Thornburgh. By its remarkably calm handling of the crisis, this team was widely credited with having averted a panic among the population of South Central Pennsylvania -- and the rest of the nation.
As President of Lexicon Communications, the nation’s oldest and most experienced crisis management firm, he has counseled some of the world's most prestigious companies in strategic public relations, crisis management, crisis communications, corporate communications, and high level, confidential issues relating to economic espionage – the single biggest business crisis in America today. He has been a strategic advisor and consultant to some of America’s leading chief executives, senior management teams and corporate boards on a wide variety of critical and confidential issues. He also has consulted with various branches of government, foreign and domestic, on highly sensitive crisis issues, some involving matters of national security and international diplomacy.
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A highly sought-after speaker, he also conducts crisis management seminars, workshops and training programs for corporations throughout the country, and has been invited to speak and conduct seminars throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
In addition, he has provided litigation support and expert witness testimony in a wide range of high-profile legal matters.
He has lectured on crisis management and crisis communications at a number of major universities and business schools throughout the nation, including the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (where he helped develop the school's first-ever crisis management course curriculum), Claremont Graduate University's Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, UCLA, USC, Penn State and others.
His groundbreaking crisis management book, endorsed by the American Management Association, has also been translated and published around the world. This book continues to be used as a textbook in some of this nation's leading business schools, including the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
His book Sticky Fingers: Managing the Global Risk of Economic Espionage is a comprehensive eye-opening look at economic espionage and the rampant theft of America's trade secrets -- the greatest business crisis facing American companies today. Sticky Fingers explains what companies can do to reduce their risk of being victimized, as well as reduce their risk of being investigated. It is the first book to critically examine the government’s lackluster efforts to crack down on this epidemic problem since the passage of the landmark Economic Espionage Act of 1996. (See EconomicEspionage.com for more information on this ever-growing bussiness crisis). He has also edited a half-dozen other books, including the widely acclaimed The September 11 Syndrome: Anxious Days and Sleepless Nights, which deals with the after-effects of that national crisis.
He is frequently featured as an expert crisis management commentator on leading news outlets around the world, such as "Nightline," The NBC Nightly News, The TODAY Show, CNN, ABC WorldNews Tonight, The CBS Evening News, The CBS Morning News, BBC World News, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX News, NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", as well as national news and business publications, including TIME, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Business Week, Industry Week, Chicago Tribune, FORTUNE, Money, The New York Sun, London's Financial Times, Investor's Daily, Christian Science Monitor, the Associated Press, and hundreds of others around the world. He has written scores of by-lined crisis management articles in such publications as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Nation's Business, Chief Executive and Leaders, as well as numerous trade publications. And he is the author of one novel about the Iranian hostage crisis and another novel dealing with terrorism, which is currently awaiting publication.
Born and raised on the East Coast, he graduated from Penn State University with a B.A. degree in Political Science and an English minor, and also attended the Temple University Graduate School of Communications in Philadelphia.
He currently chairs the board of the Dr. Harriet Braiker Memorial Foundation, and is a former board member of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
Several years ago, he delivered the keynote commencement address to the graduating class at Penn State University.
You can learn more about Steven Fink at his personal website, StevenFink.com.
Information on additional principals and areas of expertise available upon request.