Managing Communication in a Crisis and Protecting Your Brand

Michael Barrio is an advocacy, communications, and branding specialist with extensive experience in the credit union, entertainment, and high-tech industries as well as state and federal government. He most recently served as Managing Partner & Vice President of Public Affairs for Albuquerque lobbying and public affairs shop, Leverage Point, whose work was pivotal in bringing data breach legislation to New Mexico. He spent several years in Los Angeles, CA and gained extensive expertise in corporate human resources and communications, organizational development and alignment, and media relations during his tenure at The Walt Disney Company and Yahoo!, Inc. Michael also taught at New Mexico State University as an adjunct professor in Business & Professional Communication, Technical & Scientific Communication, Contemporary Identity Politics, and all levels of composition. He spends a lot of time on the national speaking circuit as an expert in corporate strategic crisis communications and incident response and, in his spare time, he serves as Founder and Editor-In-Chief for digital publication, Scruff & Vigor. He is passionate about professional and corporate ethics and remains a continuing Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Fellow and advocate, for whom he designs corporate ethics-focused college curricula. Michael serves on the Steering Committee for the New Mexico Health Equity Partnership, the Economic Development and Entrepreneurial/Technology Committees for NMACI, currently serves as President of Albuquerque Rotary del Sol, and has recently been nominated to serve as Honorary Commander at Kirtland Air Force Base. Originally from Las Cruces, he and his wife Erin live in Albuquerque, NM.