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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 Of The Board (retired)

After founding the firm in 1987, Dezenhall has stepped down from day-to-day activity effective January of 2025. He remains Chairman of the Board. With more than 38 years of executive-level experience as a crisis, communications, and management counselor for corporations, prominent individuals, sports organizations, nonprofits, and educational institutions. Dezenhall became one of the nation’s foremost crisis and damage control experts. 

Eric has authored twelve 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 non-fiction work, Wiseguys and the White House (Harper Collins, 2025), is a “connected” account of how the Mob has worked with America’s Commanders in Chief and has influenced the presidency for nearly a century. 

Over the course of his career, Dezenhall 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 was also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. 

Dezenhall is 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 also a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. 

Dezenhall graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied political science and the news media.