Join my conversation with crisis management and earned media guru, Mark Herr.

For the last 20 years, Mark Herr has led or helped lead the communications efforts of three iconic financial services companies, Merrill Lynch, AIG, and SAC Capital/Point72 Asset Management. He shaped their responses to some of the highest-profile crises in the financial world, helped rebuild their reputations, and built the brands of several other properties.

At Merrill Lynch, Mark created and executed the communications strategies as the company dealt with the turn of the century Tech-Wreck, Enron, and Auction Rate Securities litigations, as well as the other legal, regulatory, and public policy problems the company faced.

Joining AIG in the heart of the 2008 financial crisis, Mark led AIG’s Media Relations team as the company navigated being the poster child for the crisis. Working closely with CEO Bob Benmosche and other C Suite management, Mark devised the responses to the company’s fall from grace and was a key architect of its reputational comeback.

Hired by Steve Cohen and SAC Capital to create and build the firm’s global communications function, Mark served as Managing Director and Head of Global Communications. He used his expertise in crisis communications and media relations to design the strategy that took SAC from being viewed by many as a pariah to a firm that enjoys 60 percent approval.

He rebranded SAC as Point72 and built the brands for Mr. Cohen’s VC firm, Point72 Ventures, his industry-unique analyst training vehicle, Point72 Academy, and his philanthropic veterans mental health treatment program, Cohen Veterans Network.  Mark also created Point72’s internal communications program and launched its digital and social media properties and strategy, while establishing its talent recruitment messages.

A former reporter, political operative, litigator, regulator, and government official, Mark brings a unique 360-degree understanding to what it means to be in the blinding spotlight of public opinion and how to turn around the narrative from bad (or worse) to better.  As a builder of brands, he also knows how to establish the right public presence for new firms.

Mark has now founded his own communications boutique and among his projects, Mark is consulting with Mr. Cohen on Mr. Cohen’s purchase of the New York Mets and advises other companies in the pharmaceutical and financial services industries.