Stephen K. Dishart is an internationally experienced crisis expert, M&A communicator and lecturer providing consulting clients, students and general audiences with lessons that interconnect his decades of business experience with his enthusiasm for delivering meaning when it comes to the trends and challenges facing business and society today. Based in New York, Dishart is a frequent speaker both domestically and internationally on a variety of topics. He has authored studies on financial issues and online courses on communication while regularly providing crisis communications seminars in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

Dishart is the president of Dishart Communications and Crisis Management Consultants and a member of the adjunct faculty of Baruch College, City University of New York. He also teaches at Fairleigh Dickenson University Silberman College of Business, the Fashion Institute of Technology in the Department of Advertising, Marketing and Communications and for Professional Career Services. He is also a senior advisor for the Triana Group, Inc., a Wall Street business firm. 

A graduate of the International Executive Programme at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France; Dishart also holds a master’s degree in communications from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from West Virginia University. 

Dishart’s consultancy work provides media and speaker training and communications expertise including corporate leadership, mergers and acquisitions, crisis mitigation, reputation management, sensitive-litigation messaging, marketing, media relations, and public affairs. Also, Dishart has a proven track record in the areas of sponsorship, advertising and branding.

In his academic roles, Dishart leverages his practical experience and merges it with texts to provide students with an immersive experience in courses including: Public Speaking and Leadership, Media Relations, Corporation Communication, Employee Communications, Publicity Workshops, and Counseling The Corporation, a course Dishart developed based on his experiences working with the C-suite of Fortune 500 companies. Dishart has also authored online teaching courses for the Open School of Journalism and has guest-lectured for the Thunderbird School of Global Management and conducted communication and crisis seminars at various locations including The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Previously, Dishart was managing director of corporate communications in the Americas for Swiss Re, a leading global reinsurer based in Zurich, Switzerland. In this role, Dishart was responsible for Swiss Re’s most significant market that included the United States, Canada and Latin America. He was the leading communicator for Swiss Re after the September 11, 2001, crisis and managed communications for the litigation that followed. He was also instrumental in helping to open the Brazilian reinsurance market. Before joining Swiss Re, Dishart was the director of corporate communications for Mellon Financial Corporation, now BNY/Mellon, where he was involved in m many Mergers & Acquisitions and managed the communication for CEO succession. Dishart began his career as a broadcast journalist. 

Dishart is currently on the board of advisors of Corporate Communications International and The Museum of Public Relations and Library. He is also a serves on the Curriculum Committee for Baruch’s Department of Communications Studies, and is a member of the advisory board of the Baruch College Master of Arts in Corporate Communication.

Dishart is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America, has served on the board of directors of Green Chimneys Children’s Services and is the past chairman of the Insurance Information Institute’s Communications Council. As president of the board of ArtsWestchester, Dishart led a rebranding of the organization. Through Bridges to Community, Dishart helped to build homes and schools in Nicaragua. 

An avid golf “duffer,” dog lover and US presidential history buff, Dishart is the father of three grown children. He resides in Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County, New York.

Stephen has an ACE score of 2.