Simon Barker is a senior vice president in Marsh Risk Consulting’s Reputational Risk & Crisis Management Practice based in Denver. He provides counsel and support to organizations on a broad range of issues including crisis preparedness and planning, issues management, and reputational risk.

Simon combines real-time crisis management acumen with experience in planning and exercise development. Recent real-time engagements have included product recalls for life sciences, food processing, and consumer goods companies, workplace violence, and extortion. On the planning side, he has advised leading educational institutions, pharmaceutical companies, real estate development, and sporting franchises on their crisis management capabilities. Simon has also led reputational risk assessment and quantification analyses for leading multinationals.

Prior to joining Marsh, Simon was a vice president at Visa International, responsible for global issues and reputation management. Simon led Visa’s approach to a broad range of reputational risks including data security, online cross-border commerce, corporate governance and restructuring, WTO issues, and global sponsorship risks.

Simon is a former vice president in the International Public Affairs group at Edelman in Washington, DC. Providing issues and crisis management counsel, his experience spans the energy, financial services, utilities, consumer products, telecom, and automotive industries. In addition, Simon managed highly-sensitive issues for a number of foreign governments and political organizations related to major foreign policy decisions.

Simon also served as consultant to the International Labor Organization of the United Nations, based in Geneva, and an issues management firm in Hawaii. In addition, he was an international news reporter at a Japanese television network.

• MBA, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• MA, Japanese Studies, Essex University, UK and Ehime Daigaku, Japan
• BA, English Literature, Leicester University, UK