Tom Mueller is a crisis communications expert with deep experience supporting incident response, crisis training, and ransomware planning and response.

Tom most recently has served as crisis communications director for BP, providing crisis incident response as well as training for communication teams, incident commanders, and business leaders across BP’s global operations. He has planned and participated in major crisis exercises all over the world, including multi-country ransomware simulations. He was instrumental in developing a ransomware response plan for BP’s global communications function, a plan designed to maintain lines of communication when normal channels are taken offline. He ran exercises across multiple countries to embed and test this plan with staff.

Tom has personally developed unique tools and approaches to keep communications online in a worst-case ransomware attack. He has also developed a variety of video training resources and case studies to support independent study and engagement around crisis themes.

Tom has worked internationally for many years in roles that have taken him to major operations hubs around the world, including Azerbaijan, Angola, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Australia, India, China, the UK, Europe, South Africa and others.

Tom has supported major incident responses, including the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, where he served as public information officer for BP’s incident/area commander in New Orleans. There he managed BP’s media engagement activities and coordinated communications efforts with leaders from state and federal agencies also engaged in the response effort.

This was a world-class response that deployed 48,000 staff at its peak, and managed its own air force (150 planes) and navy (600+ vessels) deployed across four states. Tom worked closely with network and wire service correspondents as well as local news reporters across the geography to provide regular incident updates.

In other roles through his career, Tom has worked closely with local and state government officials and community leaders around major projects and new investments. He has delivered crisis-related training in 28 countries, and has completed expatriate assignments with his wife and children in Vietnam and Bolivia.

On the technical side, Tom served as BP’s global administrator for the Jetty crisis communications platform, managing the company’s portfolio of crisis websites, exercises, and a global training regimen. He also served as a PIO for BP’s Mutual Response Team, a 100-person global incident response team.

Tom began his career as a reporter and photographer in the newspaper world and then transitioned into public/government relations and press office roles with BP and its predecessor companies, where he worked for 33 years. He enjoys motorcycle riding, shooting sports, blogging on his travel adventures (https://talesandcontrails.com), windsurfing, and is lately learning how to kite surf. He currently resides in Houston with his wife, Pam.