Ian Mitroff

Crisis management expert Ian Mitroff has co-authored a book with Can Alpaslan addressing what steps we can take to better anticipate and manage crises, such as the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11. Swans, Swine, and Swindlers: Coping with the Growing Threat of Mega-Crises and Mega-Messes explores the concept of messes—webs of complex and dynamically interacting problems—and then provides tools and frameworks to deal with the crises of today and tomorrow. Drawing on ideas from philosophy and psychology, the book aims to be a guide for a new era in crisis management. Mitroff will be signing copies of the book, which will be available for sale after the lecture.

Mitroff is a professor at the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management at Alliant University in San Francisco. He is also a senior investigator in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at the University of California, Berkeley; adjunct professor of health policy at St. Louis University’s School of Public Health in St. Louis, Missouri; and professor emeritus from the Annenberg School of Communication and the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, where he was the Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy. He was the founder and director of the USC Center for Crisis Management and is currently president of the consulting firm Comprehensive Crisis Management. His previous books include Smart Thinking for Crazy Times, The Essential Guide to Managing Corporate Crisis, and Managing Crises Before They Happen.