- FBI’s former lead international kidnapping negotiator
- CEO & Founder of Black Swan Group
Chris Voss, who was the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator, founded the Black Swan Group, a strategic business advisory firm that focuses on negotiation (applying the lessons of hostage negotiation to the business world). He is a retired 24 year veteran of the FBI who has negotiated hostage cases ranging from Latin America to the Middle East. Chris was the FBI hostage negotiation subject matter expert for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group and the US hostage negotiation subject matter expert representative to the G-8. Prior to becoming the FBI lead international kidnapping negotiator, Chris was a member of the New York City Joint Terrorist Task Force for 14 years. Chris is a recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement and the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service. Chris is currently adjunct professor at Georgetown University and has lectured on International Business Negotiation at Harvard University and has lectured on negotiation for the High Performance Leadership course at the IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Sloan School of Business at MIT and the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. Chris has an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.