Jonna Mendez
Former CIA Chief of Disguise, Author, Speaker
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Jonna Mendez
Featured Keynote Programs
Undercover Boss
Jonna Mendez has fabricated disguises around the world, in the most hostile cities in the world. She is able to take a well-known figure and quickly disguise them to the level that they basically disappear and their colleagues would not be able to recognize them. This has proven to be an excellent way to bring her talks home to her audience, and she can combine the fascinating clandestine disguise of an “Undercover Boss” with any of her presentation topics below.
Female Spies
Clandestine Women
Jonna Mendez served 27 years undercover with the CIA, retiring as Chief of Disguise. She relates spy tales about a number of effective and not so effective female spies, and also discusses her own experiences, living and traveling around the world, operating in the alleyways of Europe, the Far East and the Subcontinent, in alias identities, participating in classic espionage operations.
Disguise, Deception and Illusion
Clandestine Operations Based on the Principles Of Magic
From Sun Tzu to the present, warfare has been conducted by the use of deception and illusion. Jonna Mendez, former Chief of Disguise for the CIA, reviews some of the most important deception operations throughout history. With the use of the art of magic, illusion and misdirection many enemies have been defeated without taking the field of battle. Jonna will recount stories of deception as used by the Allies in the Battle of El Alamein and “D” Day. From Hollywood she learned how to manage the “stage” on the streets of Moscow, delivering “performances” that helped win the Cold War. She also gives examples of how the “stage” of battle could be better managed today in the war against terrorism.
The Real “Q”
Gadgets and Technologies in Espionage Operations
Jonna served 27 years in the Office of Technical Service, the technical arm of the CIA’s operations directorate. She gives an overview of technical operations and the spy gear that made them unique. These gadgets were designed to keep foreign agents in place in hostile environments and to get them out of harm’s way when it was time. She finishes with an in-depth review of operational disguise and identity transformations operations where she tells stories of some of her life and death operations designed to elude surveillance and move intelligence agents and officers clandestinely around the world.
Business Applications of The Moscow Rules
Not unlike Sun Tzu's Art of War, the rules of espionage as manifested in The Moscow Rules, have universal application across business categories. From "Know the opposition and their terrain intimately," and "Don't harass the opposition," to "Technology will always let you down," The Moscow Rules move easily back and forth from business to intelligence operations. The rules that have successfully guided CIA operations in Moscow over decades can also apply to business strategies. A number of current examples make the case.