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Bio Summary
  • Specialized in crisis, communications, and management counseling
  • Chairman and co-founder of Dezenhall Resources, with over 30 years of executive experience
  • Author of eleven books
  • Regular media contributor and public speaker at prestigious universities and major corporations
  • Serves as a trustee of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship and a founding member of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition Board of Directors
Favorite Quote

“The crisis in…a young man’s life may be reached exactly when he half-realizes that he is fatally overcommitted to what he is not.”

– Erik Erikson
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Eric Dezenhall

Chairman and Co-founder

Eric Dezenhall is Chairman and co-founder of Dezenhall Resources. He has more than 30 years of executive-level experience as a crisis, communications, and management counselor for corporations, prominent individuals, sports organizations, nonprofits, and educational institutions. Dezenhall is one of the nation’s foremost crisis and damage control experts.

Eric is the author of eleven books, including three non-fiction texts on crisis communications and corporate witch hunts, entitled Damage Control: How to Get the Upper Hand When Your Business is Under Attack (Portfolio, 2007), Nail ‘Em! Confronting High Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses (Prometheus Books, 1999), and Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal (Hachette, 2014), which explores how once-powerful people, organizations and brands are easily brought down by the seemingly powerless through the media and internet that feed almost exclusively on destructive information. These books have been widely cited in business, media and academic circles. His most recent fiction work, False Light (Greenleaf, 2021), is a thrilling tale of retribution set against the vibrant backdrop of sensationalist modern media and cancel culture. A  “downsized” investigative reporter embarks on an entertaining and complex plan to exact revenge on a predatory media star in the court of public opinion.

Dezenhall has appeared on network television and radio outlets including NPR, CNN, FOX, CNBC and MSNBC; has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today; and is a regular contributor to the Daily Beast, The Huffington Post and CNBC.com. A sought-after lecturer, he has spoken at universities such as the University of Chicago (Booth School of Business), Georgetown University, Dartmouth College, and The George Washington University; and to audiences such as Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, General Electric, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Army. Dezenhall is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Dezenhall also serves as a trustee of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, an organization devoted to fostering educational and career opportunities for outstanding young African-American men. He was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.

Dezenhall is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he studied political science and the news media. He lives near Washington, D.C. with his family.