Larry Walsh is a senior advisor to corporate management and boards on a broad range of issues related to crisis preparedness and reputation management. As Vice Chairman of the Hawthorn Group, he works with companies and trade groups to develop and implement issues management programs and to provide real-time crisis management support. He is a former Managing Director at Marsh Risk Consulting, a division of Marsh McLennan.

Walsh has more than 25 years experience in public affairs and issues management, including: disaster recovery, shareholder litigation, management turnover, government and regulatory inquiries and data breach. And, he has advised companies—from electric and gas utilities, to financial services, to healthcare—on the development and implementation of crisis preparedness programs, on crisis communications and on training and exercising.

He is the author of several benchmarking studies, including an analysis of Communications Alignment and Integration at Ten Leading Companies; an outgrowth of his work with several large companies to restructure corporate affairs functions to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.

A political consultant by background, Larry worked on more than 30 races for the U.S. House and Senate, on presidential races in the U.S. and Latin America and he served as Special Assistant to the President during the Carter Administration.