Mike Barger

Mike Barger is an acclaimed author, speaker, educator, consultant, and commentator on the complex nature of crisis leadership. With more than 30 years of experience in hands-on and up-close crisis management, Mike is ideally suited to teach, support, and inspire current and future leaders who dare to stand up and take responsibility for organizations, employee groups, customers, and entire industries … in good times and bad.

Mike Barger knows what matters when the stakes are high — how to behave, what to say, what kinds of teams to assemble, and how to juggle the complex (and often conflicting) expectations of key stakeholders. He has “been there and done that” … in fighter planes over war zones as a carrier-based FA-18 Hornet pilot and Chief Instructor at the US Navy's TOPGUN school; in the corporate C-suite as a co-founder, operations executive, and Chief Learning Officer at JetBlue Airways; and in the classrooms of the Stephen M Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where he teaches high-stakes leadership and entrepreneurship. The environments in which Mike Barger has grappled with the realities of leading under immense pressure formed a collective crucible from which he emerged battle-tested and prepared to teach others how to prepare for (and perform during) the most trying of times.