Simon Barker is Managing Partner at Blue Moon Consulting Group.  Prior to founding Blue Moon, he was a senior vice president in Marsh & McLennan’s Reputational Risk & Crisis Management practice.  Simon provides issues and crisis management advice and counsel to clients spanning high profile product recalls, protests, cyber attacks and data breaches, active aggressor events, natural disasters and a broad range of ethical, financial and social issues.  He brings this “hands-on” experience and applies it to helping clients in advance of a crisis or issue and has developed crisis management and crisis communications plans for clients in the higher education, technology, financial services, consumer goods, healthcare, and sports industries amongst others.  He has led training sessions, tabletop and functional exercises for organizations in the US, Europe and Asia.

Prior to joining Marsh, Simon was a vice president at Visa International where he was recruited to build and then manage Visa’s global issues and reputation management program.   He led Visa’s approach on a range of issues including data security, fees, corporate governance, and global sponsorship risks.  In addition, Simon was responsible for developing Visa’s Corporate Social Responsibility strategy prior to the company’s IPO.

Earlier in his career, Simon was a vice president of the International Public Affairs group at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, in Washington, DC.   Clients included the International Monetary Fund, Chevron, the government of Portugal and the government of Kazakhstan amongst others.

In other roles, he has served as a strategic advisor to the head of communications of the International Labor Organization in Geneva, and was also an international news reporter at a Japanese television network.  Simon has his MBA from Cornell University, New York, his MA in Japanese Studies from Ehime Daigaku, Japan, and his BA in English Literature from Leicester University, UK.