Dr. Larry Barton is one of the world’s leading experts in crisis management and threat assessment. He serves as the Distinguished University Professor of Crisis Management and Public Safety at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Prior to this post, he served as President and CEO of The American College from 2003-2013. Dr. Barton has consistently been rated a highly regarded speaker at The FBI Academy and private sector conferences where he teaches courses in threat evaluation and crisis prevention.
Dr. Barton designs strategies and solutions addressing workplace violence prevention and crisis mitigation; this includes presentations and training. He is a frequent commentator on television networks during and after incidents of public violence for CNN, the BBC, CBS and other news outlets.
The author of five best-selling books on crisis response, his work, Crisis Leadership Now (McGraw-Hill) was voted one of the Best Business Books of the Year by Soundview Executive Books. That work is now used in over 340 training programs globally and is available at amazon.com. He is a Partner in Insurex, a think tank of highly seasoned executives spanning the corporate insurance, risk and liability sectors (see insurex.net).
Dr. Barton was Vice President of Issues Management for Motorola from 1995-1999, managing risk and crisis management for a multinational with 152,000 employees and contractors; he led the investigation into several murders at that company during this period. As a result of his efforts, he was asked to help write the definitive study for the U.S. Congress on management changes needed at the U.S. Postal Service.
Since 1990, Dr. Barton has helped clients respond to over 3,400 critical incidents in the workplace, including cases of homicide, suicide, stalking, executive harassment, physical assaults, emotional breakdowns and threats via social networking. His client list includes 120 members of the Fortune 500. He stages high impact simulations and scenarios for corporate teams on issues including the insider threat, radicalization, data breaches, and critical incidents.
He holds an AB, magna cum laude in speech and communications from Boston College, the MALD in international law from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a Ph.D. in international relations and public policy from Boston University. He was named the first Fulbright Scholar to Japan in Crisis Management and was instrumental in working with the Japanese National Police in their investigation of the Aum cult, a group that killed 12 and seriously injured hundreds of others on the Tokyo subway system.
In 2018, Dr. Barton was named the recipient of The Distinguished Service Award from ISMA, the International Security Management Association, the world’s leading organization of chief security officers. Prior recipients include the Director of the CIA, the Director of the FBI and the U.S. Secretary of State. In 2024, he received the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award and became the first American inducted into the Security Hall of Fame at the annual meeting of OSPA/ASIS.
He may be reached at laurencebartonllc@gmail.com or by calling 01.602.740.4888
